Cultivating a Strong Food Safety Culture
November 01, 2023

Part 1: Understand Food Safety Culture
Over the past few years, food safety has begun to change for many organizations. It started out as a team of specialists responsible for food safety. However, it has now transformed into a concept known as “food safety culture.” This is the shared beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of people and their actions. Apart from its literature definition, food safety culture can be thought of as an overall mindset for driving organizational beliefs and values around the importance of food safety and puts it into action with specific and observable actions.
With all the available articles and publications on this topic, you may think it sounds simple to improve the mindset of an entire organization. However, implementing changes to enhance food safety culture remains a complex challenge. In order to start improving the food safety culture at your organization, many factors within the organization must change. Let’s break it down into 5 key foundations:
1. Leadership and Equality
Initiating a change in an existing culture must start at the senior management level. This is where the change can be initiated. Management can help the entire staff understand the “why” of food safety, and not just how they are supposed to do it. Why there are standard practices and protocols, safety checks, and how each employee’s role contributes to safeguarding consumers’ lives. When management actively and positively champions changes to enhance food safety procedures, it sets the tone for employees to follow suit.
2. Accountability
The concept of, “do the right thing even when no one is watching” can be applied to the food safety culture mindset. Organizations looking to strengthen their food safety culture must implement food safety protocols and procedures that will address potential risk if they arise. The biggest aspect to achieve strong culture is the employees. If they understand the “why” of food safety, they are empowered to take the right actions and report potential health hazards that could potentially jeopardize food safety.
3. Teamwork
The why of food safety needs to be a shared value between every team in the organization. It starts with the knowledge and overall belief that each team member’s tasks in the food safety process directly impact consumers. This belief should be taught to new employees to continue this culture mindset shift. In a work environment, team members are influenced by their department and coworkers. Therefore, when team members seek to understand how to strengthen and create a strong food safety culture, these values will pass to new employees.
4. Encouragement and Recognition
Employees that are using best practices and following rules and regulations should be acknowledged and rewarded for continuously keeping food safety top of mind. Encouragement and engagement are essential for maintaining a strong food safety culture.
5. Continuous Training
It’s crucial to keep employees up to date with all regular training covering aspects such as food hygiene, basic elements, food safety behaviors, and updated federal compliance requirements to allow for continuous personal improvement. It is also important to train employees to understand that their overall purpose in their role or position is to ensure food safety is at the forefront of their job.
Cultivating a strong food safety culture is an ongoing process of constant improvement and commitment from every department and employee. Adjusting your current food safety culture could improve your employee satisfaction, boost profit, and increase customer loyalty. It’s a process that should not be overlooked.
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Category: Food Safety, Consumer Goods, Dietary Supplements, Food & Beverage, Milling & Grain, Pet Food, Adulteration, Allergens, Microbiology, Environmental Monitoring