16 replies to this topic

[FiorellaOrtizL]

Hi everyone!

 

As you know, SQF Edition 10 now requires a documented Food Safety Culture Assessment Plan.

Has anyone already developed one and would be willing to share an example or template? I would really appreciate any guidance or ideas. Thanks in advance!

[GMO]

There may be some useful resources on here:

Food Safety Culture Toolkit | Foodborne Illness Prevention | STOP

 

But honestly whatever you choose, make sure it actually is validated in some way. I see a lot of people doing a lot of rubbish work in this area just to tick a box. You'd be better off using some internal focus groups than some of the stuff I see to be honest. There's advice in that tool kit though.

[MDDF]

 I see a lot of people doing a lot of rubbish work in this area just to tick a box. 

That's my plan....

[TimG]

That's my plan....

Garbage code in the standard=Garbage box checking, IMO!

 

If they really wanted to measure culture, they'd audit the owners/executives. It all rolls downhill from there.

[Scampi]

Garbage code in the standard=Garbage box checking, IMO!

 

If they really wanted to measure culture, they'd audit the owners/executives. It all rolls downhill from there.

 Precisely  the should have beefed up the management commitment  not made up a b*****t requirement we cannot control 

 

Recalls happen from the top down, not the bottom up     

[MDDF]

The whole thing is just stupid.   I train my people.   I monitor their GMPs.   We monitor that they can't put foreign material in the product.   We cover everything about food safety we possibly can in job training, descriptions, and a hundred other things I won't mention.    Then they expect some teenage kid that's working here for the summer at $X per hour to care about this stuff?    They don't care, they will never care, you can't make them care, you can't fire them and hire someone else who will care.  Hell, I feel pretty lucky if they show up to work each day.   (This Monday, we had 8 people not show up of  about a 20 person crew.   8.   Almost half.)

 

So I check the box.....   

 

If they said 'prove to me there's flying saucers or we'll pull your ticket', I'd have proof of alien life waiting for them next audit....

Edited by MDaleDDF, 16 July 2026 - 05:11 PM.

[cookinmaple]

I agree with everyone's sentiment on the subject. This is what I have done so far,

 

At the end of the year, we have staff complete the Food Safety and Culture anonymous survey, and each question is scored. The question with the lowest score is the focus area for next year's Culture improvement plan. The next time they complete the survey, I will compare the score on the same question to see if the improvement plan worked or failed.

[GMO]

Garbage code in the standard=Garbage box checking, IMO!

 

If they really wanted to measure culture, they'd audit the owners/executives. It all rolls downhill from there.

 

This is I think what people are getting wrong on culture. Why the hell wouldn't you be measuring the owners / executives? Why is it not them leading the plan? If you're only looking at operators, to my mind yep you're ticking a box.

[GMO]

The whole thing is just stupid.   I train my people.   I monitor their GMPs.   We monitor that they can't put foreign material in the product.   We cover everything about food safety we possibly can in job training, descriptions, and a hundred other things I won't mention.    Then they expect some teenage kid that's working here for the summer at $X per hour to care about this stuff?    They don't care, they will never care, you can't make them care, you can't fire them and hire someone else who will care.  Hell, I feel pretty lucky if they show up to work each day.   (This Monday, we had 8 people not show up of  about a 20 person crew.   8.   Almost half.)

 

So I check the box.....   

 

If they said 'prove to me there's flying saucers or we'll pull your ticket', I'd have proof of alien life waiting for them next audit....

 

I'd expect the owners to care and reading a lot of comments on here I'd say that's variable. And that will have an impact on whether your teenage kid cares.

 

The "tick the box" surveys you could make or lift of the shelf won't reveal that.

 

I really wish people would spend some more time on it before dismissing it but also accepting it's probably not a Technical / Food Safety job. It's an engagement job. It should (in my mind) be run alongside your overall engagement programmes, your behavioural safety programme. All of these are targeting the same things.

[liberator]

A question to ask your employes, do you buy this product you help manufacture? Would you be proud to have this product in your pantry, do you tell your friends about our products, good or bad, why?

 

I never bought the peanut butter our Co. made, (well I did once) not that I had no confidence in our company and its culture, I simply didn't like the product, I bought a competitor's product, because that's what I preferred. But if people asked me, I'd be happy to say yeah, it's good, if that's to your taste.

[Bo16]

And with anonymous questionnaires, how do you deal with employees that use them as a gripe session......  not about food safety, or food safety culture.  They are just mad because someone else promoted, they got called out for a mistake they made, they think they do all the work and everyone else is slacking....  

 

This occurs even with long term employees.  It's hard to tell if they are talking about safety culture or where their lives are at this minute and the mood they are in...

It's a snapshot.  I hate basing evaluations on things like this.  

 

I prefer walking the building, talking to people, asking for input, watching interactions... I document that.  Not quite as measurable in terms of statistics but you know what they say about statistics.....

There are 3 types of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.

[Scampi]

company puts out a massive survey every year  it always turns into a bitch session I ignore those responses

 

I have created a food safety culture training that includes questions graded on the always to never scale       going to use that as the baseline for this year

 

they do not have the option to add comments, they can only answer the questions as provided  (using Alchemy)

[qa_maddy]

And with anonymous questionnaires, how do you deal with employees that use them as a gripe session......  not about food safety, or food safety culture.  They are just mad because someone else promoted, they got called out for a mistake they made, they think they do all the work and everyone else is slacking....  

 

This occurs even with long term employees.  It's hard to tell if they are talking about safety culture or where their lives are at this minute and the mood they are in...

 

I would file these and put them in an "other" category and say I escalated them to the correct department - HR, Their direct supervisor, whoever. I fortunately don't deal with a whole lot of that here on surveys but some of the managers on the Ops side definitely joke about  the "camp counselor" aspect of their job sometimes. There's stories told of survey answers requesting cable TV access in the break room, and no good snacks in the break room vending lol. 

[cookinmaple]

And with anonymous questionnaires, how do you deal with employees that use them as a gripe session......  not about food safety, or food safety culture.  They are just mad because someone else promoted, they got called out for a mistake they made, they think they do all the work and everyone else is slacking....  

 

When I give them out, I explain the purpose of the questionnaire. Then, I remind everyone that if they have other problems, I can direct them to the appropriate site management member for their concern. 

 

When I get a random answer, I report that as 0, because that means I didn't do my job well enough for this person to understand what FS Culture is and how to answer the questionnaire. That would be another part of the Assessment & Improvement plan.

[AtomicDancer]

company puts out a massive survey every year  it always turns into a bitch session I ignore those responses

 

I have created a food safety culture training that includes questions graded on the always to never scale       going to use that as the baseline for this year

 

they do not have the option to add comments, they can only answer the questions as provided  (using Alchemy)

@Scampi Can you share the training you created?

[Scampi]

@Scampi Can you share the training you created?

I cannot, however it's basically a power point  talks about culture generally, and then has question slides with the required answer from Strongly Agree to Strongly disagree (I will use the same questions year/year to track improvment/changes)

 

I will also be putting together training for senior leadership-----they need to understand the impact of their decisions good and bad  (but not expecting much)

[TimG]

 

 

I will also be putting together training for senior leadership-----they need to understand the impact of their decisions good and bad  (but not expecting much)

 

Bring a bull whip and crack em with it every time they say something stupid!