Food Safety Culture: Embracing Basic Steps to Produce Healthy Food
Embracing basic steps will enhance the success in producing healthy food
While maintaining a safe and secure food manufacturing facility involves a host of complex and often interrelated tasks, achieving good and consistent results will always hinge on the ability to foster a working environment whereby a food safety culture can pervade throughout the company.
The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) technical working group defines food safety culture as,“shared values, beliefs, and norms that affect mindset and behavior toward food safety in, across, and throughout an organization.”
The definition is derived from existing literature on organizational and food safety culture and made practical and applicable through the group’s work.
In July 2015, the GFSI board established a technical working group to provide perspective on food safety culture, with the goal of offering guidance to companies seeking to incorporate cultural aspects into GFSI’s benchmarked certification programs.
While culture has long been recognized as playing a significant role in organizational success or failure, it has not been communicated in the same way as more established food industry standards, including supplier verifications, sanitation, and training requirements. This required the input of practitioners to explain how to give dimension to food safety culture, according to GFSI.
Food Safety Culture
It is important that all employees fully understand the procedures, practices, and behaviors that help support preventive control measures. “Doing it right even when no one is looking” should serve as a mantra for promoting a food safety culture.
Facility employees need to understand the importance of good health and safety practices and habits, largely because, in contrast, food safety failures can potentially have a major impact on the facility’s reputation and profitability.
Consequently, employees should know why the control measures are important and what consequences may occur when measures fail or when they are not followed properly.
In addition, the workforce needs to understand fully its responsibilities when problems may arise and have the trust and support from upper management that will help expedite corrective actions.
The familiar adage, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” aptly applies to food safety culture.
While treating a food safety problem is important, preventing it in the first place should be the main goal.
This is a key reason why employees should be encouraged to report potential hazards or inappropriate job-related behavior, which could lead to a food safety-related incident.
The company management, in turn, should provide the necessary resources to address problems in a coherent manner.
Upper management also should foster a trusting environment in which employees can share positive experiences among coworkers to help reinforce good food safety culture.
From The Top Down
The food industry has a moral and legal responsibility to ensure that a food safety culture is maintained.
Promoting a viable food safety culture within any facility starts with support and guidance from upper management.
It is important that management develop a mission or vision statement that sets the stage as to why embracing a food safety culture mindset will enhance the facility’s stature in delivering high-quality products consistently.
While the mission statement need not dive into the precise details of food safety, the message still can serve as a good foundation for embedding into company communications the clear idea that food safety has the devout financial commitment and resources from upper management to be successful.
It’s important that management develop a mission or vision statement that sets the stage as to why embracing a food safety culture mindset will enhance the facility’s stature in delivering high-quality products consistently
A policy statement consisting of specific goals should reinforce the overall strategy that values a companywide food safety culture.
It also is critical to employ effective and unified messaging regarding food safety throughout the entire company.
The food safety messaging and guidelines should be organized and formatted in a concise and consistent manner, as well as tailored to various stakeholders and distributed throughout the milling facility.
The credibility of a company’s food safety messaging is dependent upon how much value it places on bolstering a food safety culture.
Key Components
The following are some additional key components to consider in promoting proactive food safety culture, which include:
• Training programs.
• Communication.
• Recognizing risks and hazards.
• Documentation.
• Food safety governance.
Training Programs
Implementing beneficial food safety behaviors in ways that influence and inspire workers companywide hinges on education and training programs that are easy to understand and instill confidence.
Company employees will have varying levels of knowledge, understanding, and confidence in food safety behaviors. So, these levels may fluctuate based on changing competencies, the types of safety programs, and individual circumstances.
To better manage these variabilities, a company will need a routine process to evaluate not only the levels of understanding but also the levels of confidence in existing employee behaviors toward food safety.
It’s important to seek input from employees on the perceived effectiveness of current food safety training and education programs and to encourage feedback that can be used to make any necessary improvements and changes.
Communication
Effective communication ensures that a company’s food safety culture strategy remains in the forefront and is understood by all employees.
This communication needs to occur regularly, be tailored to the company’s various audiences, and remain targeted to help promote a desired safety-related behavior where needed.
A communication program, whether involving meetings, briefings, conferences, leaflets, or videos, also needs to be evaluated periodically to measure its impact and effectiveness.
A communication program, whether involving meetings, briefings, conferences, leaflets, or videos, also needs to be evaluated periodically to measure its impact and effectiveness
As part of a company’s communication program, a protocol also should be established that educates employees on the appropriate steps to take to inform company personnel about food safety concerns.
Employees should feel unhindered and confident that their concerns will be taken seriously and will be investigated by the appropriate parties.
Recognizing Risks and Hazards
Recognizing actual and potential hazards and risks among the many tasks involved in food production represents a key strategy in developing and sustaining a food safety culture.
Basic scientific and technical information should be accessible and understandable to everyone.
It is important to keep current on the latest food industry information including safety-related incidents, changes to food safety legislation, significant innovative technology, and scientific advances.
Together these aspects will broaden the awareness and understanding of potential risks and hazards.
Documentation
Food safety documentation serves as an invaluable tool in making intelligent decisions consistently.
The documentation encompasses data (e.g. product, process, and training records) and information about food safety expectations, plans, and operational procedures and helps to verify that established protocol is being followed properly.
Such information also helps new employees get up to speed on the company’s food safety culture, as well as serve as a good refresher course for long-standing employees and even outside vendors.
Documentation helps safeguard a company’s accumulated knowledge base and eliminates the need to rely on individual employee knowledge.
To be effective, a comprehensive documentation system must be kept up-to-date and very accessible, as well as easily understood.
Being attentive to developing and effective food safety procedures and instructions is critical.
Those users mpacted by these documentation measures should be engaged directly in the process to ensure continuity and feasibility.
Some examples of relevant documentation to support food safety include:
• Food safety plans/manuals based on different schemes.
• Clear descriptions of tasks/responsibilities and those authorities who oversee food safety.
• Process standard operating procedures.
To be effective, a comprehensive documentation system must be kept up-to-date and very accessible, as well as easily understood
Food Safety Governance
Food safety should be incorporated into the company’s management structure and exhibit an appropriate and high stature throughout the whole company.
It is critical to establish standards that align with global food industry best practices.
Food safety governance should cover elements including:
• Strategic direction.
• Organizational structure and accountability.
• Policies and standards.
• Risk and issues management,
• Culture and behaviors.
The best results are achieved when the company maintains a formal food safety structure with clearly defined individual responsibilities and firmly set food safety rules that exist throughout the company.
In larger companies, some consideration should be given to how best to delineate a decision-making process, so that it can operate efficiently in a streamlined manner to help avoid conflicts of interest and gridlock.
In the end, promoting a food safety culture will be better served when those directly involved with food safety have a direct pipeline to report to upper management.
Karl Ohm, contributing editor
Editor’s note: For further reading, see the following articles:
• “Healthy Food Safety Culture,” Second Quarter 2021 Milling Journal, pages 18-20.
• “Managing Regulatory Inspections,” Fourth Quarter 2018 Milling Journal, pages 26-32.
All the above articles can be accessed online at milllingjournal.com/digital-editions