Food safety culture is increasingly being recognized as an important factor in preventing food safety incidents. A strong food safety culture ensures good practices are not only understood but followed. Developing a positive food safety culture requires understanding behavioral dynamics and how individuals and teams are conditioned by their work environment. Managing these human elements and creating the right feelings is essential to change behaviors and prioritize food safety. An organization must measure where they fall on the food safety culture maturity spectrum from passive to actively driving positive change, and take steps to progress their culture.

1. 2 Vol 28 Issue 4 ... More online
FOOD SAFETY CULTURE
C
ulture is increasingly
cited in reports and
papers relating to food
safety incidents and
outbreaks and is being identified
as a significant emerging risk
factor. It is becoming ever more
appreciated that the key objective
of any food business is to create,
deliver and maintain a food safety
culture. Food safety cannot be
guaranteed by a simple standards
based approach. A strong food
safety culture will ensure that good
practice is not only understood
but, more importantly, being
followed. It can be instrumental
in delivering compliance and is
a prerequisite to any continuous
improvement programme. So what
is it? To paraphrase the Health and
Safety Executive ‘The food safety
culture of an organisation is the
product of individual and group
values, attitudes, competencies and
patterns of behaviour that determine
the commitment to and the style
and proficiency of an organisation’s
food safety programme.’ Maybe a
simpler definition might be ‘it’s what
we tend to do around here’.
When you start talking culture
to most food scientists and
technologists, there is the automatic
assumption that this is something
you would find growing on a Petri
dish. Behavioural and cognitive
science is not an area we have
traditionally operated in. Times are
changing and the standard food
...real food
safety
is what
happens
when
managers
and
supervisors
are not
present and
individuals
are left to
their own
devices.’
Delivering a food safety culture
Sterling Crew, Vice President IFST and Head of Technical at Kolak Snack Foods Ltd,
explains the importance of developing a positive food safety culture.
Courtesy of CFA/Greencore
safety tool box of training, audits,
testing and risk management
needs to be supplemented by an
understanding of behavioural
dynamics. This relates to the
behavioural operating characteristics
of individuals and teams and how
they are conditioned by their working
environment. Appreciation and
effective management of these
interactions are essential to develop
positive attitudes and the necessary
behavioural changes to drive food
safety. Training and knowledge
alone do not necessarily result
in behavioural change. Unsafe
behaviour simply equals unsafe food.
The human behavioural element
clearly cannot be divorced from a
food safety programme. We are all
influenced by behavioural enablers.
People will forget what you said.
People will forget what you did. But
people will never forget how you
made them feel. It is essential to
create the right ‘feelings’ if we are
to change behaviours. After all, real
food safety is what happens when
managers and supervisors are not
present and individuals are left to
their own devices.
Food handlers will demonstrate
the correct behaviour if they
understand the consequences
of getting it wrong and they have
confidence in their knowledge and
its relevance. The gap between
knowledge and its application in
the workplace can be a potentially
dangerous one. Although the
terminology used may be new to
the food safety professional, the
descriptions will resonate and be
only too familiar. For example:
• Optimistic bias – ‘It will not
happen to me’,
• Illusion of control – ‘Nothing
has gone wrong. I know what I
am doing’,
• Cognitive dissonance –‘I am
doing wrong but there is a
reason’ and
• Attitudinal ambivalence –
‘There are more important
matters’.

2. www.fstjournal.org 3
FOOD SAFETY CULTURE
...the food
safety
culture can
be turned
into a
competitive
advantage.’
Sterling Crew is Head of Technical at Kolak Snack Foods Ltd, 308-310 Elveden Rd, Park
Royal, London, Middlesex, NW10 7ST, UK
Email: Sterling.Crew@kolak.co.uk Tel: (0) 208 965 5331 Web: www.kolak.co.uk
For online version visit:
www.fstjournal.org/features/28-4/food-safety-culture
The increasing recognition of
cultural impact on food safety was
reflected in a recent Campden
BRI training survey of 25,000
global food manufacturers and
processors, which revealed that
90% of respondents believed
that the primary purpose of
training was to develop a food
safety culture. Strong senior
management, leadership and
demonstrable commitment
are essential ingredients. It is
the senior management team
of an organisation which sets
the food safety moral compass.
Development of people and their
training needs should be at the
very heart of a business and
must always be on the table for
discussion in any organisation
serious about delivering a food
safety culture. As with any
behavioural cultural based
approach, it starts at the top of an
organisation.
A food safety culture can
only be delivered as a result of
concrete action. It will not evolve
by accident. You do not build a
food safety culture, you build the
team and they build the culture.
It must be imbedded in the
business values. Priorities may
well change in an organisation
depending on the circumstance
but imbedded values do not. All
food organisations will have a
food safety culture even if they do
not recognise it. The food safety
culture maturity spectrum ranges
from passive at one end to driving
positive behavioural change at
the other. The challenge to the
food safety professional is to
measure where your organisation
lies within the spectrum and
to take the necessary steps to
develop it. A progressive approach
can be what separates market
leading performers from average
performers and, if the right steps
are taken, the food safety culture
can be turned into a competitive
advantage.
What bad looks like
PASSIVE
• Lack of leadership
• Flexible morals
• Imbedded in priorities
• Reactive
• Lack of employee
engagement
• Employee unrest
• Stagnant behaviour
• Educated not trained
• High level of complaints and
incidents
• Unsafe FSMS
What good looks like
ACTIVE
• Leadership from top to bottom
• Integrity
• Accountability
• Good communication
• Imbedded in values
• Proactive
• Behavioural based FSMS
• All employees are engaged.
• Long term
• Employee confidence
• Mutual trust
• Shared importance of risk
• Drives behavioural change
• Low level of complaints and
incidents
• Understands behavioural drivers
• Safe FSMS
Food Safety Culture
Maturity Spectrum
As every food safety practioner
will know, if you cannot measure it
how can you manage it? Although
behavioural dynamics might be
considered as a ‘soft’ tool, there
are simple measures that can
be adopted. An organisation
needs to develop a deck of food
safety culture key performance
indicators (KPIs). These could
include, for example, percentage
of staff that wash their hands
when entering a food preparation
area when observed overtly and
covertly. To measure employee
engagement you can use
independent third party Sedex
ethical audits, which give an
insight into staff engagement.
The challenges of creating a
positive food safety culture are
significant, but the inevitable
consequences of not investing
the necessary time and effort
to achieve this may be great. A
strong food safety culture is part
of an organisation’s continuous
improvement engine and not only
delivers greater assurance in food
safety but also contributes to a
halo effect of increasing customer
satisfaction and delivering a better
product and service. It is now
becoming more widely accepted
that only by understanding and
changing dynamic behaviour will
we be able to embed food safety
within an organisation’s culture
and bring about sustainable
improvement.