Food safety culture is defined as how everyone in a food business including owners, managers and staff think and act in their daily work to ensure the food they produce and serve is safe for consumption.
Every food business operator, from the street vendor to the multinational corporation, needs to have a food safety culture because safe behaviour prevents illness and leads to trustworthy products and brands.
A food safety culture is more than the how — it emphasises understanding of why control measures are in place and the consequences of failing to implement the measures.
A food safety Bill is expected to be tabled in Parliament for debate in the near future as Kenya steps up to contain food-borne illnesses.
But enacting and implementing food safety laws and regulations or having a food safety management system alone will not be adequate without a concomitant change in mindset and behaviour, engrained in a strong food safety culture.
So what is a food safety culture and why is it important? What does a strong food safety culture look like and how can it be established in food businesses?
Food safety culture is defined as how everyone in a food business including owners, managers and staff think and act in their daily work to ensure the food they produce and serve is safe for consumption. It goes beyond training or processes by incorporating elements of behavioural change.
Every food business operator, from the street vendor to the multinational corporation, needs to have a food safety culture because safe behaviour prevents illness and leads to trustworthy products and brands.
A food safety culture is more than the how — it emphasises understanding of why control measures are in place and the consequences of failing to implement the measures.
A strong food safety culture requires strong leadership that is committed to making safe food a top priority as well as a demonstrable commitment by the managers to the course
It also requires that all in the food business contribute and play their part, are accountable and clearly understand that they are responsible for ensuring food is safe.
In an environment where food safety culture has taken root, food safety is the unspoken rule, and everyone knows what the risks are and always do the right thing, all the time.
There is also a philosophy of self-evaluation and system improvement, the recognition that it is a continuous learning process that seeks to pre-empt future food safety problems. It is, however, important to note that just like any corporate culture, a strong food safety culture may take time to mature and take root.
So how do you entrench a strong food safety culture in your organisation? The Global Food Safety Initiative recommends five organisational dimensions that need to be interrogated to help instil a culture of food safety: vision and mission, people, consistency, adaptability as well as hazards and risk awareness.
An organisation’s vision and mission statement needs not mention food safety per se but its importance should be inherent in the action and priority setting.
Food safety should be fundamental to a food business and integral to direction setting. Leadership sets the tone and direction of its food safety culture aligned to the overall vision and mission by defining the food safety policies, expectations and requirements.
However, it is the actions by top management, including adequate allocation of resources such as people and their time and finances, that demonstrates the commitment of leadership to food safety. A reliably visible and consistent commitment to food safety by leadership lays the ground for a strong food safety culture.
People are at the heart of a food safety culture in any business. The people dimension emphasises on imparting staff with the knowledge and skills on food safety, equipping them with the tools to maintain safe foods, clearly articulating their personal responsibility and roles and empowering them to apply their skills and competencies to manage food safety.
An organisation needs to consistently train, educate and communicate food safety, and have a system for incentivising, rewarding as well as reprimanding.
The third dimension is consistency — which in this case refers to the alignment of food safety priorities with people, resources, technology and processes to effectively manage food safety and support the culture.
Such consistency is reflected through accountability, performance measurements and documentation as well as food safety-related decisions, actions and behaviours.
A strong food safety culture requires the consideration of the fourth dimension which is an organisation’s adaptability, reflected in its ability to anticipate, prepare for, respond and adopt to change. The way a food business operator responds to change will impact and be impacted by its food safety culture.
The fifth dimension considers the understanding of hazards at all levels and functions in the organisation, which is essential to establishing a food safety culture. This goes hand in hand with the people dimension and requires education and training of staff on hazards and risk and reinforcing the importance of controlling the food safety hazards.
Achieving food safety success at any point in the food chain requires going beyond traditional training, testing, and inspectional approaches to managing risks. It requires a better understanding of organisational culture and the human dimensions of food safety.
You must change the way people do things by changing their behaviour, and adopt a behaviour-based food safety management system or food safety culture.
Having a strong food safety culture is a choice. The organisation chooses to have a strong food safety culture because it values the safety of its customers and employees.
Dr Liavoga is a researcher and food safety expert. [email protected]
PAYE Tax Calculator
Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.
