Consumer complaints

On the first cold day of a year in the 1930 s — if you lived in the motorized Germany envisioned by Dr. ter Meer — you would drive your new Volkswagen down to the petrol station to have it serviced for the winter. The little car bounces, and if you are the average German you think the bouncing comes less from the cobblestone street than from the tires, for tires are of the synthetics that for one reason or another seem makeshift. "Rubber is rubber," you mutter and that thought provokes a chain of consumer complaints about the new "substitutes" like the synthetic fats you have to eat instead of butter. 

The display of the expected residual moisture level of the laundry in percent and the percentage of the actual load related to the maximum possible load is relatively new. As this is highly textile-dependent, additional measurements carried out by ever more critical consumers will almost inevitably show variations. New and actually inappropriate consumer complaints could be the result. 

Barnard, S. E. 1974. Rancid flavor is causing more consumer complaints. Hoard s Dairyman 119 1396-1397. 

Develop a metrics system allowing for quantifiable results wherever possible for example, use statistical process control charts for manufacturing processes and correlating manufacturing deviations with consumer complaint trends. 

The use of retain samples to routinely examine a statistically sound number of units is a valuable investigative tool. If the retain samples do not reveal any degradation, but other quality markers, such as consumer complaints, manufacturing deviations, and QC profiles, indicate shifts in quality, a problem with the retain sampling method should be considered. On the other hand, if the retain samples... 

As stated in the APR section above, the benefits derived from comparing information from one quality system, such as manufacturing deviations, against the frequency of consumer complaints or laboratory investigations for that same product can be quite revealing and useful. 

Consumer complaint trends Manufacturing deviations Corrective and preventative actions Design controls and changes... 

Fear of consumer complaints and litigation because of sophisticated product action or use pattern. 

Example 14-5 Calculate the maximum allowable amount of styrene monomer (Mr = 104.2) that can be allowed in a PS thermoformed portion pack with foil lid (7.5 g product) for condensed milk (see Example 14-1). Assume that based on experience a concentration above 300 pg/kg in the product will produce an off-flavor and lead to consumer complaints. The package surface area to food mass ratio ( ) is jf = 1.5 cm2 g . The product is shelf stable and has an intended shelf life of 6 months. 

Table A1.2 Chemicals that may give rise to consumer complaints... 

Chemicals considered for health-based guideline values Chemicals that may give rise to consumer complaints Chemicals potentially discharged through effluents from industrial sources Association of insecticides and herbicides with crops and crop types... 

Bringing processes into or near a state of statistical control will improve processes by making them less variable, centered closer to target, and allow the manufacturer to make a product that will more consistently meet product specifications. This benefits both the manufacturer and the consumers who use their products. The use of SPC methods to evaluate and to improve processes not only can be applied to product characteristics such as tablet weight and tablet hardness, but also to product performance measures such as consumer complaints, line down time, and industrial safety measurements. An SPC approach to process improvement can also lead to reductions in fill overages, reductions in waste, as well as reductions in batch failures. By eliminating special cause variability, it becomes easier to monitor a process to ensure that new special causes do not find their way into the process. 

Sosted H, Agner T, Andersen KE, Menne T. 55 cases of allergic reactions to hair dye a descriptive, consumer complaint-based study. Contact Dermatitis 2002 47(5) 299-303. 

The US Food and Drug Administration Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) has monitored reports of adverse reactions to sulfites since 1980. As of June 1999, CFSAN has received 1132 consumer complaints describing adverse reactions thought to be due to the ingestion of foods with sulfites. Out of 799 reports with adequate information about the intensities of the reaction, 388 (48.6%) were classified as severe. 

It is likely that new claims are on the horizon for bleach mold cleaner as a study has found that (hypochlorite) bleach solutions neutralize indoor mold allergens [350], Hypochlorite bleach would also inactivate many types of protein residues (like those from dust mites) by denaturing the protein. Indoor allergen cleaners were launched and on the market briefly in 1999 to 2000, which were nonbleach formulas (depending instead on benzyl benzoate, an acaricide). These products were recalled and discontinued due to consumer complaints. 

Another interesting problem related to the composition of packing medium in frozen fruits has been reported by Rabak and Diehl (7). Occasionally there forms on frozen fruits packed in sucrose a crystalline deposit which, in many cases, resembles a heavy growth of mold. While this condition has not been so prevalent as to cause widespread consumer complaints, it has been reported by several packers. This moldlike crystalline growth has been identified by Young and... 

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