Food Safety Culture

Introduce the Food Safety Culture project in which direction to proceed.

please

I would start off with a questionnaire for your colleagues to see where they currently stand on food safety and whose responsibility they think food safety is.  I am currently introducing food safety culture and that's my starting point.

I have changed our induction pack to include a vision & values statement to reinforce the food safety culture in the mindset of my colleagues as well as a whole section on food safety culture. 

In introducing a culture of food safety, it is important that all of your colleagues feel empowered to act on food safety issues and, in empowering them, how you refer to them is important.  I don't refer to my colleagues as employees or staff anymore, they are now colleagues from the most junior position to the top.  I don't refer to "training" anymore but either learning, upskilling or equipping colleagues.  This may seem silly but it does reinforce the empowerment aspect because it makes colleagues feel respected.

The most important thing on food safety culture is that it is company wide.  It should not be just Technical but every department, including Sales and Administration, that needs to be involved. My intention, going forward, is to set up a food safety committee chaired by a director who is not involved in production or Technical - I just need to get the buy in from the non-production and Technical departments.

Best of luck and let us know how you get on.