How to Evaluate and Enhance Your Food Safety Culture

Every manufacturing food facility has a food safety culture, whether they recognize it as such or not. Facilities already have processes and procedures in place, and behavior that is reinforced or penalized. But not every manufacturer takes the time to learn about their existing food safety culture and plan out the necessary steps to adapt or reinforce it.  

There is no one solution-fits-all to elevating your own food safety culture, but there are a few universal approaches every manufacturer can take. 

Food Safety Culture Concepts  

Food safety culture is a collective workplace perception of values, behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs toward food safety.  

• Values represent the expectations of what the company wants to achieve regarding food safety.  
• Behaviors are the actions toward food safety. An example could be, “Do the right thing even when no one is watching.”  
• Attitude refers to how individuals perceive and feel about food safety culture.  
• Beliefs are the level of confidence the collective has in the company’s safety processes. 

A successful plan cannot be implemented without first understanding these four concepts, then identifying the obstacles impacting the behavior, attitude, and beliefs of the employees, and removing them immediately.  

A facility’s food safety culture starts with the senior management team. They need to demonstrate their commitment to the company values, establish smart goals around safe food handling, and educate their employees. In other words, they need to walk the talk on food safety. 

Steps for Structuring Food Safety Culture 

As you work to formally structure your food safety culture, use the steps below to make improvements. 

• Handle creating your food safety culture framework like any other project in your company: define how many members you need, which departments should be involved, and what training these individuals will require. 
• Familiarize yourself with the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) audit requirements and the scheme under which you will be audited (i.e., BRCGS, FSSC 22000, IFS, SQF). Ask yourself questions such as: What do all these requirements mean? How detailed should we get? Do we have something already available? This should determine the basis of your Food Safety Culture program. Any of these schemes can evaluate your food safety culture, even though it's not called out specifically in one particular clause. 
• Start at the top, as food safety culture will trickle down from leaders and management.  These teams should clearly define safe food handling expectations and align them with their business model.  
• Identify and address current or potential food safety obstacles, and challenge the beliefs that support them.  

Until the steps outlined above are taken, any support for or adoption of broader food safety culture initiatives will be mostly denied. 

Introducing New Employees to the Food Safety Culture 

Food safety culture should be established during the recruiting and hiring process. This starts with the development of a job description that details the specific food safety and quality responsibilities and accountabilities for each employee. 

Determine your education and training needs, then map your available resources and identify the gaps between the two. Work with your human resources department or with a third-party vendor to start closing those gaps and accelerate the employee orientation process. 

Communication and awareness are key elements for success. Make sure the whole company is aware of your food safety culture program, processes and procedures, expected and acceptable behavior, and final outcome.  

Since people learn in different ways, use all of your communication tools to deliver and reinforce the message, adapting it to your audience. For example, consider using illustrations if you know they will be more effective with your frontline workers. 

Identify the programs that can support your food safety culture, like a rewards program to reinforce positive food safety behavior through merit increases or public recognition of the individual during internal meetings, such as town halls. 

Define how you'll assess results. Determine what to measure and use a variety of tools, including an internal audit for food safety, surveys, and GFSI audit results, to determine your current state and areas for improvement after implementing your changes. 

The Ultimate Goal of an Intentional Food Safety Culture 

A manufacturer with a strong food safety culture has a fully implemented food safety system and can address concerns or potential issues as soon as they arise. Employees are encouraged to do the right thing and voluntarily report events that could impact the safety of their food products. Auditors will mostly rely on accurate and complete food safety records, interviews with team members at all levels in the organization, and observations of employee behavior. 

This process of establishing a food safety culture does not happen overnight. In fact, it can take years of hard work and commitment from across an organization. By trying to understand and address these issues at all levels, when changes happen that may challenge food safety, a facility will be able to respond and affirm the organization’s commitment to the food safety culture. 

Deepening Your Understanding of Food Safety Culture 

Your food safety culture will continue to evolve over the years, and so should your own understanding of it. As you develop your company’s food safety culture, it's important to make ongoing learning a priority and continually explore ways to improve. Through AIB International's  food safety training courses, you can stay informed and proactive about ensuring your food safety practices are up-to-date.