Application of the fuzzy Failure Mode and Effect Analysis methodology to edible bird nest processing

The focus of this paper is on the production processes of Edible Bird Nest (EBN) in Sarawak, Malaysia. Sarawak and Sabah (two states of Malaysia in the Borneo Island) are known as the second ranked resource area (after Indonesia) of the world for EBN production. In spite of the popularity of EBN as a food source and the important economic status of the EBN industry, the use of a quality and risk assessment tool for the production of EBN is new. As such, the implementation of an advanced quality and risk assessment tool, i.e., the fuzzy Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) methodology, for EBN processing is described in this paper. Data and information are gathered from several EBN production sites, and fuzzy FMEA is adopted to analyze the collected data/information. It is worth mentioning that the EBN production in Sarawak is relatively traditional. As such, this work makes an important contribution to modernization of the EBN production industry in Sarawak, i.e., to improve the production process and ensure the quality of EBN via the use of a formal quality and risk assessment tool. Besides, this paper contributes to a new application of fuzzy FMEA to the agriculture and food domain.