Issue 9 of the Food BRCGS Standard continues to develop on from Issue 8 on the requirements for a food safety culture. The first audits begin February 2023.
What is a Culture of Excellence?
Creating a strong and effective culture is challenging for any food related business. It is essential because food safety processes and systems will not be as effective leading to food safety failures.
A Culture of Excellence is intangible. It is about attitudes and behaviours an organisation, at all levels, demonstrates. The ethos and values are all part of promoting cultures and it starts with the leadership team.
Companies, regardless of size or complexity, can adopt a safety ethos. It can be seen in small habits, such as, staff always wearing the correct PPE.
A poor food safety culture means business goals can be missed. This can lead to major food safety mistakes, such as, cross contamination and consumer illness. The brand, as well as, bottom line costs can then be compromised.
Just think of the many product recalls in the media, such as, the recent salmonella scare from chicken meat.
Evolving Food Safety Cultures
Management teams in all food businesses can avoid these safety failures if they learn to adopt and foster certain behaviours. Also, understand how they maximise the potential of their enterprise.
Safety cultures evolve and they are continuous. Adopting product safety cultures and regulations is recognised by many global regulators and Governments. BRCGS is just one example.
BRCGS Issue 9
Issue 9 sees the food safety culture section evolving with the introduction of the behaviour changes required to improve product safety culture. This includes the requirement for businesses to put in place defined activities which foster the improvement of food safety and culture, with defined timescales and measurements.
It is the role of the auditor to assess the evidence of how a business is complying with the updated Standard. This includes the need for a site to have a plan on the development, maintenance and improvement of their food safety culture. Having no plan will be seen as a major non-conformance at the audit.
The plan requires:
- Clear and open communication on product safety
- Training
- Feedback from employees
- Behaviour changes required to maintain and improve product safety processes
- Performance measurement
A key feature of the new Issue 9 is that it builds on the need to have a safety culture across a business. It is not just the responsibility of the Technical Director or QA Person. A plan has to incorprate all business functions, for example, buying and marketing.
A plan can have a five year timescale but an auditor needs to see clear evidence at the audit of its progress through its demonstartion across the business. Therefore, staff communication and mentoring are vital to success.
Measuring a Food Safety Culture
The first step in measuring a safety culture is to carry out a self assessment study of current cultures. Next, put these findings into context where current systems should progress to in 6, 12, or 24 months, for example. Thirdly, outline the steps on how to achieve those goals using tangible KPIs.
This forms a Culture of Excellence Plan (CEP).
A KPI has to measure things in numbers. An example for this exercise can be the incidences of cross contamination. Incidences can be reduced by staff using coloured coded equipment. Measure if cross contamination does decline after its introduction.
Guidance
Adopting a food safety culture impacts on every part of an organisation. Starting can be daunting. Begin with smaller issues, such as, attitudes or behaviours that can be easily identified e.g. lack of effective staff handwashing.
Identify issues in different ways if possible, for example, a confidential staff survey can also add more depth to the process.
Because safety culture is part of the accreditation process, an external Food Safety Consultant mentoring the certification process can look at the interpersonal skills of key team members and communication across the business. They can then integrate the CEP into the overall accreditation plan in order to achieve a successful audit outcome.
This is a challenging process which requires commitment on many levels. Having an expert to interpret the standard is invaluable to achieving expected outcomes for the business as a whole.
