Tips to Implementing a Food Safety Culture
Whether you are establishing a food safety culture to comply with certification or legal requirements, the following can be a useful path to follow.
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Food Safety and Food Safety culture starts from the top of the organization down through the ranks. When management makes food safety a priority and leads by example, individuals across the organization will believe in the culture too. |
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Management should clearly define each member goals when it comes to food safety. Each member should be trained to do their part, so they understand that it is a mindset as much as the tasks being done to promote food safety. |
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A food safety culture will evolve when it is talked about. Management should tell members why food safety is important. The core values can change over time so communicating to all will ensure each person is clear on the direction. These changes can involve regulatory requirements, standard requirements, or food safety incidents. |
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Management will need to allocate resources to foster a food safety culture. Once policies and procedures are in place, team members must be allowed the tools to do their job effectively. Whether these are thermometers, chemicals for cleaning equipment or working equipment, management should support getting these items so each person can contribute to the food safety culture. |
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Whether for positive performance or for improvement, a review of the food safety culture program is necessary. This can be done internally or by a 3rd party company. Changes should be made to the program when necessary and communicated at every level of the organization. This is the step where you can praise teams or individuals for doing food safety task right. |
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Part of a food safety culture is being able to adapt to different situations as they occur. This could be a recall or customer complaint. An organization should be able to quickly adapt to a sudden change based on an event, the management team will play a key role in ensuring the organizations adapts to the changes. |
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Staff members should hold regular meetings to determine what works great and what could work better. Positive and negative feedback should be welcomed and discussed to help create a stronger food safety culture. |