{"id":5987,"date":"2018-05-03T16:51:24","date_gmt":"2018-05-03T16:51:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/?p=5987"},"modified":"2025-05-12T10:53:49","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T10:53:49","slug":"food-safety-culture-its-not-enough-to-do-just-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/food-safety-culture-its-not-enough-to-do-just-enough\/","title":{"rendered":"Food safety culture \u2013 it\u2019s not enough to do ‘just enough’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you work in the food industry, it\u2019s essential that you have the correct training. As a minimum, anyone handling food for public consumption needs to have basic food safety training<\/a>. Poor food hygiene can lead to unsafe food being sold or served. Unsafe food can result in serious illness or, in extreme cases, death. In addition, it can damage your business reputation, incur hefty fines and even put the future of the business in jeopardy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In some instances training is simply seen as a box-ticking exercise. But what\u2019s the point of that? Sure, you can demonstrate that the training has been undertaken, but how is that really of benefit?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Training is only truly effective if you understand the reasons why you need to perform a particular task in a certain way. It\u2019s also only effective if you take what you have learned and use it in the workplace. Doing \u2018just enough\u2019 doesn\u2019t really help anyone, and now business managers are realising there is a case for going ‘beyond compliance<\/em>‘.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Create a food safety culture within your company<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The ideal situation is to achieve a food safety culture where food safety and continuous improvement are a way of life. To achieve this you need buy-in from all members of staff in every department. It needs to be led and championed by senior management. They need to demonstrate that food safety is of the utmost importance and must be taken seriously. As seriously as productivity and profits. That means by everyone<\/strong> in the company, during every shift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You should write the importance of food safety<\/a> into the company\u2019s mission statement. Ensure it is part of the company\u2019s vision to continually improve. Encourage staff to be proactive rather than reactive. For example, has a prominent food manufacturer had a serious food safety recall recently? Keep abreast of the facts. Also keep your ear to the ground for any industry innovations and any updates in legislation.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a busy and competitive working environment there are inevitably production pressures and tight deadlines. However, it’s vitally important that employees follow SOPs correctly. Failure to do so can compromise food safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why as part of a training programme it should be explained clearly not just which tasks need to be performed, but the consequences of not performing them, or of performing them out of sequence. Supervisors need to be trained to ensure that SOPs are being followed and to monitor performance. Ongoing staff training is important, but so is the provision of the correct tools to do the job \u2013 and the requisite PPE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ensure all staff are engaged in making food safety a priority<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

One of the major hurdles to be overcome when developing a food safety culture is staff engagement. If the staff currently have no say in decision-making, or are disengaged from work in any other way, they are likely to have the \u2018not my problem\u2019 attitude when things go wrong. The way to counter this is by involving them in decisions regarding food safety policy.  Make them feel valued, give them ownership of their tasks\/area and providing training. You can reward them for positive food safety behaviour and get them to realise that food safety is an important part of their jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feel comfortable during audits<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Another positive to come out of a food safety culture is that you should feel comfortable during an unannounced audit. You can enrol some staff in  Auditing Skills<\/a> or Lead Auditor<\/a> training to ensure you\u2019re fully prepared and carry out regular internal audits and inspections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It should get to a point where food safety protocol is followed as a matter of course. It just becomes part of a daily routine. Going over and above to ensure food safety should become the norm instead of doing the bare minimum and hoping for the best.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you work in the food industry, it\u2019s essential that you have the correct training. As a minimum, anyone handling food for public consumption needs to have basic food safety training. Poor food hygiene can lead to unsafe food being sold or served. Unsafe food can result in serious illness or, in extreme cases, death. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,245,7],"tags":[168,1328,1329,1327,39,1330,31,885,171,702,30],"class_list":["post-5987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food-safety-hygiene-news","category-auditing-training","category-food-safety-training","tag-auditing-skills","tag-beyond-compliance","tag-compliance-training","tag-food-safety-culture","tag-food-safety-training","tag-fsc","tag-haccp-training","tag-internal-auditing-training","tag-lead-auditor","tag-training","tag-verner-wheelock"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5987\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}