Food Safety Culture in a Low Risk Wine Product Facility
We have a full HACCP Program and follow the Canadian Food Inspection Agency Regulations... but the auditor is looking for a more robust Food Safety Culture...
But struggling with how to do this when our product is inherently safe (wine / alcohol). Our CCP is glass breakage and that program is robust (knock on wood - we have never had glass found in our program). But as far as pathogen or any biological risk goes there is little to none.
And because of this staff see the HACCP program and Certification as a nice to have, but that we aren't going to hurt anyone so why all the steps and requirements. And that there is why our culture is bad, but how do you change that instead of the reason being, because I (government) said so.
We run into some similar issues with a very different product, but fundamentally both are safe due to the chemistry of the product IF it is made correctly. That is one area you can try to focus on with your team, understanding what it is about the product that makes it less vulnerable to risks, and the importance of the control steps in your process that ensure the products has those traits, as well as the behaviors that can ruin the product and its safety despite those things.
Which auditor? 3rd party or CFIA?
What about making it a food safety and quality culture plan? While food safety may be something that's hard to get wrong in your category, presumably quality isn't and a lot of the behaviours you need to get right are going to be similar.
The GFSI paper on culture and PAS320 are both really good resources you could then apply to either. Things like change management, leadership cross functionally etc etc are universal to food safety and quality. And of course while micro is pretty stable (albeit I guess there may be occasional undesirable yeast and mould issues), maintenance done the wrong way could be a problem (incorrect lubricants, metal), poor CIP could be an issue (leading to chemical contaminants). Sure it might be easier to get right but if anything more important to not take for granted. Some of the biggest recalls and incidents have been on pretty stable products after all.
Scampi - Third Party, Certifying Body.
GM - I actually really love that idea
GMO - Do you have some idea's of relatively stable product that has been recalled. I think I used to do this and summarize over a two year of recalls - what was recalled due to physical, chemical, and biological.... and that was part of our annual training.... which I think is a good way to show the employees just cuz it won't kill a person biologically, it can affect the company.
Thank you everyone ! Great ideas!
https://www.bbc.com/...canada-34321181
http://news.bbc.co.u.../uk/5110674.stm
https://abcnews.go.c...ry?id=105657024
https://www.connexio...n-france/623872
https://www.food.gov...sa-prin-15-2024
https://www.food.gov...sa-prin-14-2024
https://www.food.gov...sa-prin-09-2024
The food standards agency in the UK is always a good one for finding lots of different recalls. But there are a few above from inappropriate additive levels, mislabelling, metal etc etc.
I guess if you go through your HACCP plan and look at what hazards you've identified, even if you're controlling them, if they're controlled in any way by a human behaviour (e.g. your relying on your engineer to do a PPM properly or you're relying on an effective artwork and labelling check process) then that's something you can target in a culture programme.