September is Food Safety Education Month: The Culture of Food Safety
Developing a culture of food safety is important for any foodservice operation. You may be wondering–just what is a culture of food safety? Let’s start talking about it by first defining what is meant by culture. When you look culture up in the dictionary, you will see terms such as shared knowledge, beliefs, values, attitudes, and meanings; a way of life; patterns of behavior; learned behavior of a group of people; and transmitted from generation to generation. I think these descriptors provide good insight into the meaning of a culture of food safety. You can also think about where you grew up, and a vision of culture comes. For example, I grew up in rural Oklahoma, graduating in the 1970’s with a class of 24 students. My culture instilled in me an appreciation for rural life, hard work, and independence. As I grow older, I realize I haven’t changed very much from my early years, even though I have completed a PhD, lived a lot of places, and traveled throughout the world!
Think about your foodservice operation. Is food safety a shared value and do you see the appropriate behaviors being practiced all of the time? I have always liked one of the statements in Frank Yiannas’ book, “Food Safety Culture: Creating a Behavior-Based Food Safety System”. He says that food safety should be a value, not a priority. Your first reaction might be “of course food safety should be a priority!” Yiannas argues that priorities change, but values do not. For example, you could have a priority next year to redecorate the dining room in your operation and allocate the funds and time to complete the task. They key is complete the task. Priorities change from year to year, or when you accomplish those priorities. Food safety is ALWAYS on the list of things to do because it is a value. For your organization, you want it to be the way we do things here, part of your DNA!
We can also think of culture from a microbiological perspective. If you want to see if your operation is cleaned properly, you might take swabs and send them to the lab. In the lab, they “culture” them to see what microorganisms are present. This process requires an appropriate medium (with the correct nutrients), the proper temperature, and the appropriate length of time for the microorganisms to incubate. This is a very active process to make sure any microorganisms present are identified. The reason I give this example is that I want to stress that this is a purposeful and active process. Likewise, developing a culture of food safety is an active and purposeful process—and you are key to that process.
You may be a manager or a foodservice worker—no matter which one, you have an active role in the food safety culture in your operation. Keep in mind, there is already a culture of food safety—it may be a positive culture where food safety is valued and practiced, it may be a culture where food safety is practiced intermittently or when convenient (like when we are not too busy!), or it may be a culture where food safety is an afterthought. This month, take a hard look at your food safety culture. Observe how workers are practicing safe food handling practices. Are they routine or a sometime/never practice? Consider starting with hand washing because this is fundamental to safe food handling practices! Identify changes that you would like to see, and begin working on a plan. You may have a great culture of food safety—if so, congratulations! But likely, you will see changes that need to be made, because nothing is perfect and there is always a need for continuous improvement.
Here are some key elements that I think are critical for a strong culture of food safety:
Leadership Commitment. All leaders in the organization must be committed to food safety, they can’t just provide lip service. They must value food safety as equal to other factors such a profitability and food quality. Leaders must provide:
- Resources to implement food safety—time, equipment, etc.
- Orientation and training to bring all employees along
- Role modeling—Do as I do, not do as I say! For example, every time a supervisor or management employee walks into a kitchen, he or she should follow good handwashing procedures.
- Consistent messaging about the importance of food safety
Strong Human Element. People implement food safety, so everyone in the organization must be committed to food safety. It begins with hiring individuals who recognize the importance of good hygiene and personal practices. I think we can all agree some people just should not be working in foodservice! Once hired, be sure the new employee is informed about the culture – both in written guidance such as employee handbook and from observed actions of co-workers. Integrate food safety into everything in the organization—orientation, training, evaluation. Discuss food safety and identify impediments from the workers’ perspective.
Communication. Communication (written, verbal, and behavioral) should inform that everyone has responsibility for keeping food safe. Through orientation and training, the value of food safety is being communicated. There should be ongoing communication among workers and supervisors about expected food safety procedures, resources workers need to implement food safety, and way to improve processes.
Accountability. Everyone must be held accountable for following standard operating procedures. If someone doesn’t follow the SOP, supervisors AND co-workers should be empowered to correct the wrong behavior. Supervisors particularly cannot let failure of someone to do their job the way it is supposed to be done continue, as this can have toxic effect on other staff. Those in charge must take corrective actions when appropriate practices are not followed.
What is the food safety culture in your operation? What do you need to do to do to strengthen food safety? Start by renewing your focus on food safety–do a special food safety training, purchase a new piece of equipment to support food safety and let workers know why it was purchased, replace your old signage with some new fresh food safety messages, or involve workers in a special contest related to food safety. Let your imagination go wild! This is a time to take food safety to a new level and shine a spotlight on those who do follow safe practices. Risk nothing!
Developing Good Food Safety Habits
Good habits and habit development are something that has fascinated me for several years. If you’ve attended any the training programs or presentations that my colleagues and I have conducted through our Center for Food Safety in Child Nutrition Programs, you’ve likely heard me opine about the importance of habits and how habits are created. Many times, in foodservice operations we wonder why our staff don’t follow the food safety practices we have established in our operation. Perhaps they don’t wash their hands when they are required, perhaps they just don’t use the proper method of handwashing, or perhaps we find that they don’t complete our HACCP logs as often as our program dictates should occur. And while we can stomp our feet and say “it is their job, they should just do it”, it really isn’t that simple. We can’t order people to change, although if we could, business and human resources would be so much simpler.
Getting Your Playbook for Food Safety Organized
As anyone who has ever worked in a foodservice operation knows, from the time food is received in your establishment to the time it is served to your customers, following proper food safety practices is crucial. What many don’t often think about is this time really should extend from the time the manager places their orders with their suppliers (including which purveyors you utilize), through the time the food is consumed – even if that consumption occurs off your premises and days after the original order was picked up by the guest. This is something that has certainly been highlighted by the pandemic as customers across the nation are utilizing take-out, curbside to go, and third-party delivery options more so now than ever before.
Getting Started with Building the Infrastructure
Hopefully in our first January blog, we convinced you of the importance of establishing an infrastructure within your operation to support a safe food culture. So, how does one go about doing this? Well, like any major project, break it into small bites. In our opinion, having a written guide for employees that documents expectations related to food safety basics of employee health and hygiene, temperature controls, and cleaning and sanitizing is the first step. Having this documentation serves as a reference for training and helps fulfill the mission of most foodservice operators which is to serve safe, quality food.
Food Safety Resolutions for the New Year
Finally, 2020 is in our rearview mirror and we can all turn the page to 2021! Resolutions for the new year might be more of the same from prior years (lose weight, exercise more, less screen time, etc.) OR you may have identified new practices to implement in your operation. If the latter, likely goals included some practices related to food safety – especially given the turmoil of 2020 and heightened concern by customers. It is our philosophy that attention to safe food handling practices is a win-win for any operation because of the direct relationship between food safety and food quality, which in turn leads to customer satisfaction. This past year has also demonstrated that attention to safety can affect the bottom line. Thus, the topic of our first SafeBites webinar for 2021 is on the topic of the return on investment of food safety, it is scheduled for January 20, so register now and please plan to attend.