Six Sigma scale as a quality criterion for aggregation of food property measures

The EuroFIR (European Food Information Resource) quality management framework is a recent development to process standardization in data compilation for European Food Composition Data Banks. Data aggregation procedures taken from scientific literature as well as from analytical laboratory reports are still under discussion; however, the Six Sigma concept may be a useful approach, and therefore this work evaluates the concept. The Six Sigma approach was applied directly to analytical data taken from both laboratory reports and scientific literature. Sigma levels are calculated as indicators of laboratory test performance and the approach for data and laboratory selection is discussed. The results provide additional information on the quality of analytical data, allowing compilers and users to assess bias and imprecision for single and aggregate values. The Six Sigma approach is a complementary methodology to the quality methodologies already in use for data compilation processes and can be applied to further improve data quality.