9 replies to this topic

[GMO]

Over the years there have been a few issues in the UK with people filming in food factories and putting into news programmes.  The most recent one of these exposed some lovely examples of food safety and health and safety breeches which I thought were interesting to demonstrate how much the two disciplines are linked.  I wanted to share them with my leadership team.  My then boss wasn't keen.

 

Her words were "the filming was highly selective, it could happen to anyone."

 

While she was right, this was still another company, not ours and a good example to learn.  

 

In the UK we have a sensationalist newspaper called The Daily Mail.  It is prone to print lurid or inaccurate articles.  So I often try to put on my "Daily Mail" glasses and think, "without context, how would this look to an uneducated reader?"

 

So... would your site pass the Daily Mail check?

[G M]

I considered a similar thought exercise during the height of Boars Head's media attention, and I honestly don't think any real operation could pass.  Only the most hypothetically flawless food production facility wouldn't sound awful when the descriptions of even minor failures are taken out of context.  

[MDaleDDF]

I love the Daily Mail, lol.   And they dig out skeletons from closets well.   Few would escape unscathed. 

Maybe they should take over for GFSI?!?!?!   Lol....

[GMO]

I considered a similar thought exercise during the height of Boars Head's media attention, and I honestly don't think any real operation could pass.  Only the most hypothetically flawless food production facility wouldn't sound awful when the descriptions of even minor failures are taken out of context.  

 

You're right as is my former boss that with a negative lens, no site would be unscathed.  There are sites where I could have filled hours of footage in a day and sites it would have taken 6 months or more to find non conformity that's newsworthy.  But we've all got stuff happening, especially when Technical aren't there...

 

But it is, I think, a useful thought exercise on not walking past things which are obviously wrong.

[jfrey123]

A Daily Mail check...  what a fun premise.  I know these types of videos are out there, and often they do catch some unsavory aspects of food manufacturing.  But they also tend to use traditional manipulation tactics, such as an "expert" sounding voiceover describing an issue that could be made up.  I'm imagining someone filming one of my plants as they cut the rind off of cantaloupes, with dramatic music and a deep voice over:  "Observed in this facility, an employee uses a standard kitchen knife to cut the peel away from this melon, a task far better suited for a machine.  It's unclear whether this employee, dressed in protective clothing, is properly trained on using a tool they likely also have in their own home."

 

Goofy example is just what popped into my head, but I'm trying to say there are common occurrences in all our industries that outsiders will manipulate when presenting to the uneducated public at large.  I would say that yes, my sites generally would be uninteresting to a gotcha crew from Daily Mail.  But then again these are the same sites where an SQF audit is going beautifully well until an employee decides to 'forget' MD challenge protocol right in front of the auditor...

[kfromNE]

Like others said - probably not. But people are human. Many times, I've thought - WTF. I've had 20 plus experienced employees do mind boggling things. Those are the stories you laugh or cry about later. 

Vermin and other pests even for the cleanest facility - hard to contain. Birds and mice get into buildings.  

 

I also don't underestimate the 'uneducated reader' because some people have no common sense. Those people are the reason warning labels exist. Examples that comes to mind: the guy who ate raw chicken for so many days. People who use unconventional ways to cook food like a dishwasher. 

[MDaleDDF]

Like others said - probably not. But people are human. Many times, I've thought - WTF. I've had 20 plus experienced employees do mind boggling things. Those are the stories you laugh or cry about later. 

Vermin and other pests even for the cleanest facility - hard to contain. Birds and mice get into buildings.  

 

I also don't underestimate the 'uneducated reader' because some people have no common sense. Those people are the reason warning labels exist. Examples that comes to mind: the guy who ate raw chicken for so many days. People who use unconventional ways to cook food like a dishwasher. 

I used to have this thing that strapped to my snowmobile exhaust, and you'd fill it with food, and it cooked as you rode.   So my wife and son would jump on with me and we'd snowmobile for a few hours, stop out in the middle of nowhere, and have a nice glass of wine and some shrimp scampi!   lol.

Never cooked in a dishwasher tho.....

[kfromNE]

I used to have this thing that strapped to my snowmobile exhaust, and you'd fill it with food, and it cooked as you rode.   So my wife and son would jump on with me and we'd snowmobile for a few hours, stop out in the middle of nowhere, and have a nice glass of wine and some shrimp scampi!   lol.

Never cooked in a dishwasher tho.....

 

 

Ha. That's inventive, I like it. The major difference is that you knew exactly what you were doing. 

[jfrey123]

I used to have this thing that strapped to my snowmobile exhaust, and you'd fill it with food, and it cooked as you rode.   So my wife and son would jump on with me and we'd snowmobile for a few hours, stop out in the middle of nowhere, and have a nice glass of wine and some shrimp scampi!   lol.

Never cooked in a dishwasher tho.....

 

Alton Brown once cooked an entire Thanksgiving dinner in the engine bay of a car while "driving to grandma's house", can't remember if it did it for Mythbusters or his own Good Eats show.  Again the difference was he had thermoprobes in all of the food to monitor temperatures.  He was creative in his use of different hot zones under the hood.

 

Unlike the guys I go Jeeping with.  One time our group of 20+ got held up because you never leave a man behind in the desert, but this one man decided to heat a large can of beans under his hood while we were riding.  Out of nowhere his rig shut off, no start and no power at all.  The can had pressurized from the heat and exploded, and the bean goo got into his wiring causing shorts.  Took many cans of brake clean and carb cleaner to get his wiring degunk'd so the rig would run again.

[qa_maddy]

I struggle with this too because just with talking to friends - people here (in the US) are so removed from the food system overall that they don't know what a good standard of practice is or isn't. 

I know the risks I'm looking for. I know what's okay. 

Granted that doesn't mean I haven't had employees do something that stopped me in my tracks, but I'm wondering how many laypeople would even notice.