Food Safety Trainings - Emergency Preparedness and Response
Food Safety Trainings - Emergency Preparedness and Response
Vladimir Surčinski, Project Manager, Quality Austria Center
This Live Webinar is taking place: March 13, 2015 - 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM GMT (11 a.m. EDT Start)
This webinar discusses why and how employees must be sufficiently trained in order to react appropriately in a crisis situation. Every year we suffer from disasters caused by climate change. These disasters have a huge impact, not only on the environment, but also in all the processes related to food production. Although most organizations engaged in the production of food, prepared manuals in case of emergencies, the same in most cases are not complete or not sufficiently presented to employees. In many cases, employees are not trained for crisis cases, which can be crucial for the further operation of the organization. This is why good emergency preparedness and response is important in everyday activities of food producers.
I missed part of the webinar. Where might I find the slides?
Thanks
Questions gathered from the webinar...I will ask Vladimir for his input.
Members feel free to input on the queries or indeed ask further questions.
1. Can you define what an emergency situation is?
2. Can inadequate packaging of product be a cause of product recall?
3. In what way can small companies and enterprises make safety procedures for a crisis?
4. Would the emergency plan be based on internal factors e.g. within the control of business or is it more on anticipated situations. E.G. on what could go wrong (risks) or what to do (action) of it goes wrong?
5. How to assess potential situations to establish emergency preparedness procedures?
6. Should we have special procedures for first responders?
7. Should we involve customers and suppliers in drafting the plan and in mock situations?
8. What are the most important things to consider when preparing an emergency response plan?
9. Should we perform a recall simulation with people or just do it theoretically?
10. Should you use a dedicated team to conduct an emergency test or all employees?
11. Is any template available for making an emergency assessment?
12. Should the team rank emergency situations based on likelihood and severity?
13. Are these emergency hazards in the HACCP plan or are they studied separately?
1. Can you define what an emergency situation is?
1. Emergency is a situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or environment (Wikipedia), but when we talk about a food-related emergency that involves the adulteration and/or contamination, threatened or actual, of food, that impacts or may impact human health.(NASDA - National Association State Departments of Agriculture)
Food-related emergencies may result from a variety of factors, including:
- Natural disasters or man-made events that affect food and impact human health. These may include hurricanes, floods, power outages or other events that result in the loss of food from contamination or spoilage;
- Unintentional contamination or adulteration of food that results in a public health threat or food borne disease outbreak, such as improper processing or production of a food product; or,
- Deliberate contamination or adulteration of food to cause harm to the public or to the economy.
2. Can inadequate packaging of product be a cause of product recall?
2. Yes of course, especially in cases when inadequate packaging can affect the proper storing, shelf life and in the end food safety. Also there is to considered the food contact materials when we talk about inadequate packaging.
Inadequate packaging can also be the reason for product recall if there is bad information on the same (labels that are not in compliance with the legislation).
3. In what way can small companies and enterprises make safety procedures for a crisis?
3. First i think the best way is to find information about how to make safety procedures in the legislation document, standards and of course there are number of procedures available on the internet. After that they must be checked and customized according to the processes in the company, by the employees that are most familiar with this.
Other way is to find consultants that can help in developing customized procedures.
BR,
Vlada
4. Would the emergency plan be based on internal factors e.g. within the control of business or is it more on anticipated situations. E.G. on what could go wrong (risks) or what to do (action) of it goes wrong?
4. The best thing is to start from defining all the risks (internal or external). After assessing all risks, the next thing is to define actions for all of them (what to do if risk emerge). You can have manual that describes all situations and activities in every step, and also you can have shorter version with just steps shown - this is practically plan.
5. How to assess potential situations to establish emergency preparedness procedures?
As noted during webinar, the assessing of potential situation will depend of characteristics of organization - country, regulation, location, plant, size, type of activities, type of production and products, way of storing and distribution, number of suppliers, distance of customers...
Maybe to start from establishing the team for emergency situation, and then the team can perform assessing of potential situations and develop reactions on them.
6. Should we have special procedures for first responders?
The possible way would be to insert the information about first responders while developing emergency plan/manual. I don't think that you will need special procedures. Better is to define everything you have in one place.
7. Should we involve customers and suppliers in drafting the plan and in mock situations?
7. YES :) that would be great. Only if you include all of them, you can be sure that you covered a lot with your plan.
8. What are the most important things to consider when preparing an emergency response plan?
8. As i said in some earlier replays the important thing is to consider what really can happen, and what are the realistic activities that can be performed if emergency happen. The main thing to be shown in emergency plan -
- emergency situation - what to do in first steps (power off, leaving the building, shutting down the machines...)
- define how will be informed (telephones and other contact information of responsible employees - team for emergencies, first responders, suppliers, customers...)
- define what to do with products that could be in danger
- ...
9. Should we perform a recall simulation with people or just do it theoretically?
9. You should always include people in recall, and make the realistic situation as you can. This will show your preparedness on recall and also it would be good training for employees and awareness.
BR,
Vlada
10. Should you use a dedicated team to conduct an emergency test or all employees?
10. You should include all employees (this could be also training and awareness rising for them). If this is not possible due to the specific organization, you should include responsible persons, or you could perform this in small groups.
11. Is any template available for making an emergency assessment?
11. You can use information on internet, and find some risk assessment tools for free. I think the best way is to develop the one that is specific for the organization.
12. Should the team rank emergency situations based on likelihood and severity?
12. Yes, this is something that i would use. According to that i would also define the number of emergency tests/simulations to perform.
13. Are these emergency hazards in the HACCP plan or are they studied separately?
13. HACCP plan is defining steps in production and critical points in production were hazard can effect food safety of product. Also with this plan is defined corrective actions if CCP are not managed. Emergency hazard should be studied separately, with the use of the specific information described through HACCP plan as one of the inputs.
Thanks for taking the time to follow up Vladimir...looking forward to your next webinar.
What are the benefits to take food safety trainings?
Is that a serious question Rishi?What are the benefits to take food safety trainings?
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Yes this is the serious question that i have asked. If, you know then please share with us. As you know, the question is regarding safety of food training.
Training explains why food safety is important to employees i.e. not making people sick or killing them. Training should cover the different types of hazards such as foreign bodies, chemicals, microbes, allergens and the control measures necessary for controlling these hazards and most importantly the employees role in maintaining good food safety and their practical behaviours. Regular training of employees is vital in maintaining an effective food safety management system,
Regards,
Simon