How to promote the food safety culture
Hello ,
Could you please give me some tips which will help me to promote the food safety culture?Gemba walks, communication? What exactky with some example please
and if there is any KPI which could be used to evaluate the evolution of the food safety culture?
Thank you
Dr. Lone Jespersen has some good work on how to build up and maintain a good food safety culture. https://www.cultivat...y.com/resources this has a list of resources you can use to help out. One of the biggest things you can do is just talk about WHY we do certain things. Most people are more receptive to being instructed when you give the reasonings behind what needs to happen instead of just saying "do it this way". Though there will always be the "I've been doing it this way for x amount of years" which is always a herculean task to get past.
If you are having issues with higher management getting into the culture it is always best to make models to show how FS/QA will save or have an increase of profits
It's hard to track as a KPI, though everyone seems to want it to be done. I've spent a few hours listening to webinars talking about it, and the "experts" on the panels all seem to agree it's something that needs to be recorded yet it's not something you can check off on a box. They poo-poo'd the idea of a form you fill out to record FS Culture, because once you narrow it down to a form base then you're missing opportunities to increase culture exposure. Most definitions discuss the following for FS Culture:
• Communication about food safety policies and responsibilities
• Training
• Employee feedback on food safety related issues
• Performance measurement
If you want KPI's, take note of what you've done in these areas on a monthly basis. Who held meetings and included employees and managers in discussion of FSP's and responsibilities? Note some activities from that month. Note which trainings were held. Note when you've had employees approach with concerns about your food safety. And if no one reported something, go proactively ask a few people and note their responses. It's not necessarily something you can chart, or just check off a box and say it was done. But if you record what you've done in these areas and report it to senior management at the monthly reviews, and along with their feedback, you can show any auditor that your plant has a strong culture.