The Use of the DPMO Indicator to Verify the Fulfilment of Hygienic Requirements in the Food Industry - A Case Study

The quality of the manufactured product plays a special role in the food industry. Food producers, in addition to meeting consumer requirements, are obliged to comply with legally sanctioned, rigorous requirements of hygiene and cleanliness at work, as well as the way it is performed. In order to maintain the legally required hygiene rules in production plants specializing in the production of food products, manufacturers implement numerous management systems aimed at maintaining legally imposed guidelines in the field of quality management and occupational health. The article describes the use of the DPMO indicator, which allows for a thorough analysis of process parameters affecting the final quality of the manufactured product. For the analyzed process, the maximum DPMO value for one of the areas is 636364. In nine cases, which constitutes 12.5% of the total, DPMO is 0. The purpose of this article is to identify non-compliances in the field of occupational hygiene in the production plant analyzed using the DPMO indicator and then to introduce improvements. The developed recommendations concern marking, standardization and responsibility for individual processes as well as additional cleanliness inspections.