Developing A Strong Food Safety Culture

Dr. Gary C. Smith, Colorado State University

The World Health Organization says almost 1 in 10 people is sickened by eating food processed or prepared by others¹; it is estimated that approximately 50% of cases of foodborne illness are due to failures in the “culture” of the organizations responsible for the safety of products.² Much improvement is still required in understanding how culture can be improved to enhance food safety performance. The food safety culture of an organization is critical to a company’s ability to manage the challenges implicit in producing safe food products.³ With FDA now actively talking about the potential of regulating food safety culture in the future, and with USDA likely to eventually follow FDA’s lead, food companies should start working to assess where they currently stand on the continuum of food culture.⁴

In 2015, the Global Food Safety Initiative got off to an early start with a Technical Working Group On Culture which concluded that, “The path to the vision of a landscape that goes beyond compliance with rules, regulations, requirements, and standards lies squarely in the culture of your company. It rests upon a time when employees earn autonomy to act independently yet flex as a team-member to find and commit to the best path for your company to improve its food safety culture.”² A global study in 2015 revealed that senior leaders (vice-presidents and above) rank “culture” as the number 1 concern in their organization for its ability to meet the challenges of the future, and for the business to be sustainable.⁵

Food safety culture works at the intersection of food science, organizational culture, and social cognitive science.⁶ We need to understand the interactions between traditional food sciences, including food safety, and the sociocultural sciences to determine what food safety is and how it can be measured and improved.⁶ Building a food safety culture requires buy-in from everyone; because of Murphy’s Law… anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.⁷ It’s up to the processor’s management team and staff to build the programs necessary to keep Mr. Murphy out of their operation; one of the tools that more and more operations are adopting is what is known as “the food safety culture”.⁷ Ensuring the safety of food products for consumers is a key goal of a food safety culture, and food companies are increasingly challenged to manage a robust food safety culture that consistently delivers safe food.⁸

From the raw materials arriving, to assessing each process step in manufacturing, there is a need to understand the associated risks and how they can be controlled or mitigated.⁹ The stronger the food safety culture at the manufacturing level, the lower the likelihood that issues will arise, as the company is one step ahead and looking to manage risk rather than a company with a weaker culture that is merely managing the hazard.⁹ A “mature” food safety culture can prevent physical, chemical, and biological contamination by forcing implementation in mitigating/avoiding such events. Three cases from the food industry show the impact of focusing on “mature culture”: (a) One company saw a 70% reduction in customer complaints plus a 45% reduction in lost-time injuries. (b) Another company showed reductions of 35% in customer complaints, 11% in employee turnover, and 50% in work injuries. (c) Another company surveyed its employees after a focus on culture and found that 91% understood how they contributed to the success of the organization while 82% felt that management cared about their well-being.²

Culture has recently gained greater traction: (a) The fresh produce (i.e., fruits and vegetables) industry now considers food safety culture as “essential”,¹⁰ and (b) foreign-body prevention methods require detection equipment (e.g., metal detector, x-ray) but also rely heavily on food safety culture (i.e., the behavior, attitude, and teamwork of the workforce).⁹ All-too-human causes of food safety system shortfalls have taught us that moving from knowledge-based training to behavior-based training might be the key to changing the culture in food plants and companies.¹¹

Food recalls are a measure of a company’s food safety culture. FDA examined root causes of food recalls and determined that 26% of recalls were the result of improperly following Standard Operating Procedures and 32% were caused by inadequate training.¹² A global food safety training survey found that 67% of respondents agreed that, “Despite our training efforts, we still find that employees are not following our food safety program on the plant floor”.¹³ Too many times the food safety effort is reactive, rather than proactive. There seems to be a disconnect, since most companies buy recall insurance yet are reluctant to invest in much less expensive preventive measures and technologies.¹⁴

Merging food safety and operational excellence to build a better food safety culture is very difficult when the existing culture is “run at all costs”; change takes commitment from the top down. Many company leaders proclaim that food safety comes first, then routinely take steps that run contrary to food safety (e.g., decreasing time allowed for cleaning/sanitizing so more line-time is available, refusing to slow-down or stop production when a safety problem seems imminent, running the line so fast that errors occur).⁴ For some, HACCP implementation is a remedy for all food safety issues; to others, it’s continuous improvement and “doing the right thing”.⁶ Early in HACCP’s evolution, it became obvious that management commitment was vital and essential (that is, senior managers seeing food safety management as the “right thing to do”).⁶ Demonstration of commitment by managers is seen as important for workforce commitment and behavior; the impact of people and culture on effective food safety management systems has evolved into considerations of organizational and food safety culture today.⁶

When employees, managers, and leaders feel personally committed to food safety, they will do the “right thing”; (a) even when nobody is watching, and (b) even when it is not the cheapest or fastest approach. A strong organizational culture can help create and sustain that commitment. Over time, good food safety practices become the normal way of doing things and a source of personal pride.¹⁵ In a plant with a strong food safety culture, all of the employees are empowered to speak up or stop production if they witness the processing of an inferior product or producing a product that may harm the consumer.¹⁶ Unfortunately, workers and management say this, and do this, religiously, only during a GFSI audit or when customers or regulatory-agency personnel are present.¹⁶ It’s doing the right thing when no one is looking, and when they are.⁴

Food safety culture starts at the top of the org chart; it doesn’t filter down unless it becomes important to the top management.¹⁶ The CEO must: (a) Develop budget and strategy goals that are ambitious, yet achievable, measured through Key Performance Indicators; if the goals are too ambitious, the management team and the line-workers may be demoralized. (b) Have periodic meetings at which “what’s working and what’s not” is discussed and course corrections are made. (c) Show urgency, yet patience and feedback, as the company culture evolves.¹⁷

To build and maintain a strong food safety culture, leaders must not only demonstrate their commitment with their words and actions, but also make sure that their company’s policies, systems and processes incentivize good food safety decisions and behavior at every level of the organization.¹⁶ Leaders must be consistent and transparent in their messages; they must: (a) allocate the resources needed to assure their food is safe; (b) show that they appreciate employee’s effort and engagement in food safety; (c) set targets and communicate specifically and consistently, and (d) set the right tone – it must be positive.²

Objectively quantifying the “culture” of a company or in a facility is difficult. Some say it’s all about recalls and market withdrawals. Many experts say that the food safety culture in a facility can be measured by what employees do when no one is looking; others say it can be gauged by whether intermittent findings of a resident environmental pathogen are allowed to persist over a period of time.⁴ The Global Food Safety Initiative has had a profound influence on: (a) how to measure “food safety culture”, and (b) how to predict the future success of the food safety culture in a company and at its production sites.

Safe Quality Foods states, “Where management is committed to creating a food safety management culture: (a) recalls and market withdrawals are reduced, (b) efficiencies are increased, and (c) costs are lowered. During a facility audit, the auditor should assess management and workforce commitments to providing safe, quality foods”.¹⁸ Brand Reputation Compliance (formerly called British Retail Consortium) states, “A fundamental factor in the management of product safety is the safety culture which prevails at the site; that is, the shared attitudes, values, and beliefs relating to the importance of product safety, the confidence in the product safety processes used at the site, and the systems available to report any concerns relating to product safety. For this culture to flourish and the importance of product safety to be understood by all members of staff, it needs to be led from the top of the organization to ensure that the necessary commitment, support, and resources are available”.¹⁹

References 

1. World Health Organization. 2018. www.who.int. June 1 Issue.
2. Jespersen et al. 2018. Food Safety Magazine. June 20 Issue.
3. VanRenterghem, Barbara. 2021. Food-safety.com. August 5 Issue.
4. Stevens, Shawn. 2021. Meatingplace. August 16 Issue.
5. Korn Ferry Institute. 2015. dsqapj1lakrkc.cloudfront.net. June 15 Issue.
6. Wallace et al. 2019. Food Safety Magazine. April 16 Issue.
7. Stier, Richard. 2021. Food Engineering. March 5 Issue.
8. Emond et al. 2018. Food Safety Magazine. October 1 Issue.
9. Sharman, Nic. 2021. Food Safety Magazine. August 10 Issue.
10. Food Safety Magazine. 2021. August 19 Issue.
11. Faour-Klingbell, Dima. 2021. Food Safety Magazine. August 12 Issue.
12. US Food and Drug Administration. 2009. May Edition.
13. www.campdenbri.co.uk. 2017. September 6 Issue.
14. Fenton, Daniel. 2021. Meatingplace. August 16 Issue.
15. Wan and Marterer. 2018. Food Safety Magazine. May 15 Issue.
16. Chance, John. 2021. Meatingplace. August 16 Issue.
17. Spector, Barbara. 2021. PrivateCompanyDirector.com. April Edition
18. Safe Quality Foods. 2021. info@sqfi.com. Accessed 9/20/2021.
19. Brand Reputation Compliance. 2021. enquiries@brcgs.com. Accessed 9/20/2021.