What product evaluation and quality assurance in Tesco plc.

Tesco products are continually monitored and tested for their quality and customer acceptability; this is product evaluation. Tesco staff and management procedures are also monitored to ensure that they maintain the highest standards; this is quality assurance.

Why does Tesco carry out product evaluation?

Product evaluation is carried out for a variety of reasons. These include:

· testing new products under development

· testing existing products when a change of supplier is being considered

· testing Tesco products against those of competitors

· to update information on the packaging

· to monitor quality and safety standards.

Changing of packaging information

Even when a product remains the same, packaging information may have to be altered because of a change in legal requirements, changes in nutritional concepts, or advances in food preservation and cooking. For example, a product might have its packaging altered to indicate that it could be suitable for microwave cooking. It will therefore be necessary to test the product in company’s laboratory. Here Tesco inserts fibre optic probes into the product. This allows us to monitor the temperature of the product whilst it is cooking, in order to ensure that it reaches a high enough temperature for it to be consumed with safety.

Tests on existing prod ucts

Quality control tests are conducted regularly on all existing own-brand products at Head Office, in Consumer Advice Centres, and in specialist laboratories. These include tests on food safety.

Consumer Advice Centre

The purpose of five Consumer Advice Centres in Sandhurst, Shoreham, Southport, Cheshunt and Perth is to carry out practical research with customers into new and existing products. Each centre is staffed by two consumer service officers who are qualified home economists. Their most important role is to conduct consumer acceptability tests and sensory analysis. Over a four-day period, six to eight products will be tested.

Their role also includes being available to the customer for any queries concerning diet, health and nutrition, PR work at a local and national level, quality control, and giving talks and demonstrations to local community groups.

Organising a taste panel

Market researchers will recruit customers who are shopping in the store. These customers take part in the test only if they fulfil the recruitment criteria that have been established for the product being tested. For example,Tesco might ensure that all participants are heavy users of the product, or a product aimed at children will be tested on children only.

As far as possible, consumers test Tesco products against a benchmark. This other product is normally the market leader; testing against it allows us to ensure that product matches or exceeds this quality standard. Products are tested "blind" and identified by codes so that consumers do not know which one is the Tesco product and which one is the benchmark.

The questionnaire is designed so that consumers give scores for various questions, such as their opinion as to the appearance of the product; they are also asked to tell us what they liked and disliked about the product.

Sensory analysis

Sensory analysis is a more technical evaluation of a product which is carried out by consumer service officers who have been specially trained to analyse the product using uniform objectives and technical descriptions. They will evaluate the product and forward a description of it to Head Office for use in the final report.

What is done with the data?

Data from sensory analysis, questionnaires and customer comments are collated and subjected to statistical analysis at Head Office which will lead to a product either passing or failing the tests. If it is failed, the product is reformulated according to the comments made by customers in response to the questionnaire. Products are then re-tested and will be launched only when they achieve a pass result.