Carry out testing for quality control in milling
Overview
This standard is about the skills and knowledge needed for you to carry out testing for quality control in milling. You need to follow relevant policies and procedures that apply to your area of work and report on the quality of work activities against specifications. You need to organise work to meet schedules and targets, and make effective use of resources. You also need to identify, record and report any problems affecting the volume of throughput. You will contribute to identifying opportunities for improving food and drink operations. You will identify improvement opportunities by suggesting ideas and contribute to developing an action plan. You will need to understand how to test raw material e.g. wheat, on delivery, which will then be milled into another product e.g. flour. You need to know about testing procedures and the controls in the testing process; what procedure should be followed if there is a nonconformance found on testing; how to prepare products for testing; and how to record test results. You will also need to understand laboratory tests on wheat and flour that are crucial to the quality of the final product. You will need the technological understanding of routine tests and procedures that are required to make sure wheat and flour reach a specified standard. You will also need to know how to interpret the results of these tests. This standard is for you if you work in food and drink manufacture and/or supply operations and are involved in testing of raw material for milling carried out at or around the point of delivery.
Performance criteria
You must be able to:
check that there are sufficient resources available to complete
testing activities within your own area of responsibility
check that testing equipment is working effectively
carry out testing in accordance with current legal and regulatory
requirements for hygiene and environmental standards or
instructions
- monitor work activities to meet testing requirements and to identify
any variances against specifications
complete all relevant testing and report as appropriate
handle, store and dispose of materials in accordance with
organisational requirements
report all variances outside of specification to relevant person(s)
identify and report opportunities for improvement of work activities
to relevant person(s)
- identify implications of changes to make sure that the change is
documented
gather information about potential improvements
identify and make positive suggestions about areas for
improvement
- share your ideas for improvement with the relevant people and
react positively to feedback you receive
- communicate your finalised ideas in sufficient detail to enable
further action to be agreed
- work with others to agree an action plan for putting improvement
ideas into action
make a positive contribution to putting the plan into action
test and check improvements to find out how effective they are
before recommending further action
- evaluate the effectiveness of improvements that have been
introduced
- access information from appropriate sources to support your
report and recommendations
communicate recommendations to relevant people
complete records in accordance with organisational requirements
Knowledge and Understanding
You need to know and understand:
Test incoming raw materials for milling
what the purpose of testing raw material used in milling is
the basic methods used for testing in milling
what the procedures are for testing
how to check the testing equipment is working properly
how to use the testing equipment
what the operational and regulatory requirements are for testing
product quality
what the health and safety requirements and procedures for
testing are
what the controls are in the testing process
why raw material is tested in controlled conditions
what the procedures are in cases of non-conformance
how and where to record test results and how to generate
relevant reports on quality trends
Wheat and wheat flour laboratory testing
what the legal or regulatory requirements, the organisational
health and safety, hygiene and environmental standards and
instructions are and what may happen if they are not followed
what routine tests are carried out on wheat and flour and their
purpose
how to carry out initial sample appearance tests and what this
indicates about the consignment
how to measure sample purity and the significance of this
how to measure moisture content, including oven test, and its
significance
how to establish how much of the protein content of wheat is
functional gluten protein, how this is measured, and factors which
affect protein quality
how to establish protein content and quality
how to measure hardness of wheat, including by single kernel and
Stenvert test, and why this is significant
what the Hagberg falling number test measures, how to carry it
out and its significance
how to measure the specific weight of wheat, including by Kern,
what affects it and its significance
what information variety identification provides and how it is
carried out
how to carry out reference tests on wheat and flour
how to test protein and moisture in flour by NIR including starch
damage, ash, colour, water absorption and Hagberg falling
number