The Lesson of "Why" in Food Safety Culture

As I sit here contemplating what information I would like to share with the food processing world that I have learned in the time that I have been involved in it, it was difficult to settle on one topic.  A passion of mine has been to instill knowledge in those around me and gain knowledge in the process.  My advice to those around me has always been to listen with the intent to understand rather than listen to respond.  My skill set has always been ready at the forefront to use at a moment's notice.  I was fortunate enough to have a few brave souls willing to spend their time and teach me those things that I truly didn't understand to make me a more well-rounded food safety professional.  I didn't start in the food industry at first.  My origin story originates from an investigative background where I found myself looking for a new road in my journey.  Sometimes listening to your inner voice is just as important as listening to those around you. 

Sure, there are some hot-button topics out there that could be discussed and have been discussed at length.  My passion right now in this realm is food safety culture.  As I stated before, I am passionate about sharing information as well as learning information.  Food safety, as we are told, is everyone's responsibility, but how often do we stop and ask ourselves about what it is that we are wanting to achieve?  Often, the answers are just out of reach of our fingertips, and yet the expectations are still ever-growing and forever changing.  Employees in the food processing industry are not always well equipped to adapt due to a lack of understanding of what is needed to accomplish these new ideas and tasks to stay at the forefront of the food industry.  This is to the detriment of food safety culture as employees do not understand the "why" of why procedures or policies are in place.  It is my firm belief that if employees know the "why" rather than it is just the way this company has always done this task, the employees are more likely to improve the food safety culture at the most minute levels and achieve the greatest impact on the company's commitment to food safety.

The question then becomes how we should go about achieving this.  As I look at the issues, I believe that this can be achieved with a multilayer approach.  Management team members sharing knowledge with their teams about why food safety is important is a great start, but also adding in something as simple as we clean our hands because we are making someone's food.  Better yet, our employees often buy our products and serve them to their families. Employees often sit in training to hear about the policies and procedures, but when it becomes a real-life situation for them, we have found that the "why" tends to matter on a personal level.  It has also been my experience that no two employees understand the information in the same manner, so often I have had to tailor training to the employees' learning.  Companies have an abundance of training schemes as resources for employees who will tend to excel in this area instead of placing all training into a one-size-fits-most training program.  Training programs are an essential building block of a food safety program as well as developing a food safety culture for the facility.

Verification of these training programs is just as important as the training itself due to making sure the employees understand the training and expectations.  Coaching and observing real-life application of policies and procedures allows the management team to engage and understand their team dynamics allowing them to understand where the gaps are and what they can do to shore them up. Often the verification is overlooked, and this important part of the process can become trivial as it is not seen as important as other tasks in management's eyes.  By not giving this part of the process its proper due, non-conformities, quality issues, food safety issues, etc. tend to become a part of the everyday process and the hopes of elimination become slim without this process.

So, when an employee asks me why something is done a certain way, I feel like it is my responsibility as a food safety leader in my company and community to give them an answer.  Food safety is everyone's responsibility, and when we strengthen our food safety culture through knowledge the "why" just seems to be more meaningful. Never stop learning and sharing knowledge as we advance food safety every day.