Must start from the head down.
I remember being at a company that made pies. Acting as an Consultant having just completed an operational and capital walking tour of the facility I was sitting at a conference table explaining operational issues that I observed, everybody around the table is nodding up and down and basically telling me that it's next to impossible to institute a "food safety culture" in their kind of operation to which I said, well that's funny you should say that because I was in a similar operation that makes cakes about a month ago and you should see how their food safety mindset rolled out in the workplace. I went to say that here there really are no capital improvement issues (structure, wall, flooring, equipment condition, etc.) but on the operational side it's a complete breakdown and failure and no wonder they had two recalls in the past year for things that never should have happened.
Then the owner and president of the company come in and sit down -- interesting how demeanor's changed with all sitting at the table.
Now, it got serious.
Both the owner and president made the statement that they thought the facility was in pretty good shape, to which I agreed - in fact, I said that if the only thing an SQF audit focused on was the physical plant they would get a 100, but on the operational side they would fail so badly they would have to first crawl out of the well to gasp for some air and then have to face their customers and tell them why they have such terrible operations.
Both, sat there seemingly stunned.
The owner who is rarely there said I don't understand, but the president said, well we did pay him to tell us what's wrong and then map out a way to fix it.
The owner, still in the dream believing that everything was OK was immediately tasked with entering the production area with a list of things to check, he was told to follow all the GMP's, hairnet, washing hands, sanitizing, labcoat, etc.
He went with an escort and they began a series of checking on their employees, stopping to see how a metal detector check is done, how a refrigerated truck is handled inbound and outbound, what records are checked, what did the employees know about HACCP, what were the CCP's, what was the importance of not bringing personel items into production, etc. etc.
Now, we got to watch them thru one way windows and on the monitors --- to say the least, it was a gigantic eye opener for the owner and the president.
That day we mapped out a plan and it wasn't technical that got the job of overseeing everything - it came from the head of the company, owner and president - within 6 months their "food safety culture" was not something they all just said would be a good idea, it became reality.
Training became conprehensive and everyone was required to go thru all training including owners, president, vice president, marketing, production, sanitiation, maintenance, shipping - everybody.
And at their first SQF audit they garnered a 95.
It has to come from the top - it has too!