Written by Chain Guard Staff
Original Date: 2020/03/01
Revision Date: 2025/04/30
When it comes to cultivating a food safety culture, understanding and valuing the importance of food safety is the easy part for food processing facility management. The hard part is getting food processing facility employees to adopt those same values. It is important to educate your team on how to maintain food safety standards, however, employees to truly care about food safety can sometimes be tricky. One of the most successful ways for getting your team to understand and value food safety is by implementing a positive food safety culture.
Food processing facilities that focus on creating positive food safety cultures find that their employees are happier and value food safety more than ever before. Which leads managers to ask, what is the real meaning of food safety culture and why it is so incredibly important? In this blog you'll learn what food safety culture is and 5 tips for implementation from experts in food safety culture.
There are many definitions for what Food Safety Culture can look like. The masters of food safety over at Navitas Safety help simplify this definition in their blog, 6 Ways To Create a Positive Food Safety Culture.
"Food Safety Culture is all about how an organization values their food safety. It’s super important that the values are shared by management and employees alike. An organization with a strong positive food safety culture demonstrates to its employees and customers that making safe food is an important commitment." (Gerard Burden, Navitas Safety).
We agree! Valuing Food Safety is the foundation of Food Safety Culture, but if these values aren't shared by the entire team, then the Food Safety Culture is compromised. In order to have a positive food safety culture, managers and leaders of food processing facilities must go beyond simply providing employees with basic food safety training and must also instill corporate food safety values, while proving to customers that those values are being carefully carried out throughout each and every process.
By prioritizing food safety in your food processing facility, you can improve your brand value, increase levels of performance, and even gain a competitive advantage. There are many benefits to food safety, especially for businesses of all sorts of sizes! A recent study from BRCGS revealed that "60% of consumers increase[d] focus on food safety post-COVID". (BRCGS). Consumers are getting smarter about food safety, and for businesses to establish brand confidence, food safety must become a top priority.
How Can Food Safety Be Improved?
A great way to continuously improve food safety is through establishing a positive food safety culture. There are many different techniques businesses can use to help implement and maintain a healthy food safety culture. We've compiled a list of the top 5 tips for implementing a positive food safety culture. These tips come directly from experts in food safety!
A goal without a plan is just a dream. The first step to creating a positive food safety culture is to build a solid foundation in regards to the structure, organization, and implementation plan for food safety compliance. The International Food Safety & Quality Network recommends creating an organizational structure that will help manage your organizational resources. An organizational structure will help you define your vision for food safety compliance while allowing you to check in, accomplish, and redefine your food safety goals continuously. Having a defined plan set in motion will allow you to efficiently meet and exceed food safety requirements. As mentioned in the article "Uncovering the Strategies to Establish Food Safety Culture in Food Service Facilities" written by Simon from the International Food Safety & Quality Network; by having detailed documentation that outlines all processes, instructions, procedures, and reports that are required to ensure food safety, you will be setting yourself up for success. This organizational structure will help to keep you accountable and set a good example for your employees, which will help keep them educated, informed, and safety-focused.
Another aspect of modeling good food safety practices to employees involves failure. Failure is a natural part of life. Ignoring the possibility of failure will teach employees to fear it. This undermines the development of good food safety culture as it creates an environment where facility workers are afraid to come forward to report food safety incidents, such as contamination, out of fear they will be written up or fired. Employees should feel comfortable coming to the facility managers with any concerns related to health & safety. Although shutting down production and disposing of a contaminated batch results in a loss, having a contaminated batch of product leave a facility destined for the consumer will result in a much larger and far more expensive problem.
"Food service leaders must develop a competency model by determining factors that contribute to food safety failures through efficient root cause analysis, identifying key processes and team members, and establishing clearly defined reporting structures. This will help in laying the groundwork for effective food safety leadership and communication." (International Food Safety & Quality Network, 2021).
It's ALWAYS better to catch contamination BEFORE contaminated product can leave a facility. Create a safe space for your employees to report contamination or any incident regarding food safety by establishing clearly defined reporting structures. A great way to create a positive food safety culture is by implementing a reward system that helps to encourage employees to consistently practice safe food handling behaviors. This rewards employees for prioritizing food safety, as opposed to reprimanding them for mistakes. With that said, mistakes are bound to happen and when they do, it is important for managers to determine what caused the incident and how it could've been prevented in order to reduce the risk of it occurring in the future.
The last aspect of creating a strong framework for modeling a positive food safety culture is by standardizing procedures. Automating process can help reduce human error and reduce the possibility of food safety issues occurring. For instance, lubricating your food processing equipment with an automatic lubrication system is a great way to reduce equipment downtime and prevent human error.
Click here to read 5 benefits to automatic lubrication methods.
When it comes to baking safe & fostering a positive food safety culture, ongoing employee training is key. In order to get employees in food processing facilities to understand and uphold safety procedures, managers must explain the importance of why these strict rules and regimes are followed. However, training should not be given with a one-and-done mindset. Employees in food processing facilities should receive reoccurring training and guidance on food safety standards and procedures. Just as you should be regularly checking in on how you are maintaining food handling and storage procedures, food facility managers should check in with employees and ensure that they are still upholding safety procedures as tightly as the day they first started.
Take it from the experts over at FSR Magazine!
''Food safety training and education should be an ongoing effort. Train new employees immediately and emphasize why food safety is—and will continue to be—a huge priority for your organization. Provide continuous updates and refresher courses for all staff to keep the food safety “rules” top-of-mind." (FSR Magazine, 2017).
Without proper training and guidance, a positive food safety culture does cannot exist. The first step to getting employees to continually value food safety starts with you!
Keeping your facility's records organized is essential to a positive food safety culture. Without an organized system, you can lose track of when you last trained employees on food safety, when you last received an updated SDS, and more. These are essential documents to keep updated in the event of an audit. Although food processing facility managers dread SQF, BRC, and GFSI audits, having a clean, organized space for your records will make audits a breeze and will set a positive example.
Take tips from the experts over at Food Safety Tech!
"Collect the data that is measurable and non-subjective to help drive continuous improvement. If you collect it, you must do something with it. Good documentation is imperative to prove you did what you said you were going to do, especially in the event of an audit. Be stringent in training, and review all documentation before it hits the file cabinet to ensure it is accurate and appropriate." (Food Safety Tech, 2015).
Make food safety a part of the corporate mission. The experts over at Quality Assurance & Food Safety know that food safety isn't a one-size-fits-all concept. Given the varying roles of each of the members within many departments at a food facility, it is recommended that Food Safety Culture be broken down in ways that are unique to each individual employee.
"While the practical processes and implementations are handled by a company’s food safety team, the idea of food safety doesn’t have to rest on their shoulders alone. While food safety doesn’t need to be mentioned in the vision and mission statements themselves, its importance should be reflected in all of the company’s communications, including its website and corporate annual reports,” said Marie-Claude Quentin, senior technical manager at GFSI. “It should also be key to internal communications which should occur regularly, be tailored to the organization’s various audiences and should be measured for effectiveness.” Some ways to do this might include posters, meetings, briefings or even competitions, awards and recognition." (Quality Assurance & Food Safety, 2021).
So you've been implementing ways to foster a positive food safety culture....now what? Well, without measuring your progress there is no way of knowing if your changes have been effective. It's time to conduct a food safety culture assessment!
The experts over at the Canadian Institute of Food Safety have great tips for how you can measure your success with your food safety culture journey.
"Some examples of what and how you can measure are: observing employee behavior when following standard procedures, reviewing health inspection reports, evaluating the frequency of customer complaints and how they were resolved, and assessing employee understanding of food safety goals and priorities of the company." (Canadian Institute Of Food Safety, 2019).
You've read tips from the experts in Food Safety Culture, now it's time to learn about an aspect of food safety you may not have considered until now. Safe industrial lubricant practices. That's where we come in! Here at Chain Guard, we are experts in providing high-quality, premium food-grade lubricants for an array of applications. Our mission is to help food processing facilities keep chains moving and #BakeSafe by using NSF Approved H1 Food Grade Lubricant.
You might be asking yourself...how does food grade lubricant relate to food safety culture?! It is more important than you think. Take it from the experts over at Plant Engineering.
“The need to focus on food safety now is growing. Lubricants used in production processes offer the possibility of cross-contamination into food. The growing concern for food-safe lubricants raises questions about whether food safety regulations and standards also apply to food-grade lubricants and how food manufacturers meet operational requirements without introducing new chemical hazards.” (Plant Engineering, 2021).
Food grade lubricant is often overlooked when discussing Food Safety Culture, but it is as critical as ever to ensure the product your facility is producing is safe for consumption. Ensure that all staff working on the production lines and/or help to maintain your facility's equipment are thoroughly trained on the importance of food grade lubricant and know the correct procedures when it comes to safe lubricant handling and storage.
Click Here To The Top 7 Tips for BRC Compliance on Safe Lubricant Handling and Storage in Food Facilities.
"Food Safety Culture Starts With You" (The Consumer Goods Forum - GFSi, 2021).
The consensus among all experts included in the blog is that food safety begins with the ones enforcing food safety standards. It is up to us as managers to continually look for ways to train, motivate and lead the employees in our food processing facilities to success in food safety.
"Even a simple, personal interaction can be the best way to connect. Leaders who do a walk-around, have an open-door policy, or sponsor “open talks” enforce a thriving culture." (GFSi, 2021).
The most detrimental aspect of fostering a positive food safety culture does not involve the employees, but rather the managers, whose values must be deeply rooted in food safety culture themselves. Let's work together to #BakeSafe and make the food processing industry safer than ever before.
Connect with us on Linkedin to stay updated on the latest industry information and to learn more ways you can #BakeSafe.
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