Introduction

Industry needs an effective chain control system, which enables the detection of non-conformance, to trace it back to its source and to stop the danger of repetition and proliferation at a reasonable cost level. Unfortunately, some players in the market are still choosing a very special approach to overcome hard competition. 

As most of the known adulterations and infringements of fair competition are not health related, the responsibility for stopping such problems has become more and more a task for the industry itself. 

The juice industry recognised the need for industrial self-monitoring and established the Asociación Española de Autocontrol de Zumos y Néctares (AEAZN) in Spain, the British Soft Drink Association (BSDA) in the United Kingdom, l'Institut Professionnel pour la Qualité des Jus de fruits (QUALIJUS) in France and SGF International e. V. in Germany. 

In order to harmonise already developed systems and to make industrial control even more effective and efficient the EU fruit juice industry through its representative association the AIJN founded the European Quality Control System (EQCS) in 1994. EQCS was the umbrella organisation for European market and bottler inspections until November 2018. In November 2018, the member organisations of the former EQCS decided to found a new structure on which the Juice Control System can focus on their operational work without having any administrative boundaries. They founded the Union of European Juice Control Systems EJCS. 

The objectives of the Union are: 

• To align control activities of the juice control systems in Europe.
• To contribute to free and fair competition. 
• To protect the image of the products and the industry. 
• To be a platform for exchange of know-how and expertise about authenticity and food safety issues.
• To organize annual Europe wide quality campaigns for juice products.
• To communicate the findings to the AIJN, sector and other interested parties.