Food Safety Culture

How can we measure our food safety culture?
Following on from last week’s blog I shall highlight how we could measure culture in our workplace.
“How can I manage what cannot be measured?”
On our visits on the production floor we can continuously observe the following;
 

• Team member behaviours

        E.g. hand washing, work practices, QC checks, and maintenance operations

• Pre-production observations

       I.e. is the equipment free from all debris?
             is there any water pooling on surfaces?
 
Off the floor we can determine culture by;

• Trending our microbiological results including environmental swabs, in process product, PPE, hand swabs and finished product
• What issues or areas from improvement were highlighted during recent audits and have these been addressed?
• How, Where, When do we train our staff and do we provide refresher training?
• Do we provide opportunities for staff to suggest improvements to the plant and process thus allowing them have ownership of what they do

 
It is also worth noting that the British Retail Consortium have released a draft Version 8 of their standard for industry consultation and one of the items that maybe included is as follows;
1.1.2
The site’s senior management shall have a documented strategic plan for the development and continuing improvement of food safety culture. This shall include:

• defined activities involving all sections of the company
• an action plan indicating how the activities will be undertaken and intended timescales
• review of the effectiveness of completed activities

This shall undoubtedly help in promoting a culture which is continuous thus ensuring consumers are protected from any harm.
 
REMEMBER FOOD SAFETY HAPPENS WHEN YOU ARE NOT ON-SITE