Challenges and "basics" of Food Safety Culture in companies
Challenges in implementing a Food Safety Culture
Dec 2023. Regulation (EU) 2021/382 provides the mandatory implementation of a Food Safety Culture for all food companies. This is intended to increase food safety by raising awareness and improving the behavior of employees. However, inspections and audits of companies often show that effective implementation of these requirements in practice is slow.
We explain the obstacles and disruptive factors that arise when implementing the Food Safety Culture in production companies and what the "basics" are for effective and sustainable implementation.
Theoretical objectives and practical obstacles
In the case of a Food Safety Culture, the initiative is based on a declaration of commitment by the company management, which is adapted to the individual departments of the company and reduced to suit the target group. Implementation is thereby reduced almost exclusively to the definition of responsibilities and behavioral measures, which are to be achieved and maintained through recurring training.
Grown organisational and technical structures in practice, such as older production facilities that are in need of maintenance or seasonal production sites, are often an obstacle to the successful implementation of a Food Safety Culture. In addition, logistical or process-related planning errors, inadequate role model behavior on the part of management personnel, insufficient instructions for action or inadequate training of employees, as well as negligent behavior on the part of the employees, lead to deviations in practical implementation.
Technical additions to disciplinary measures
Many food companies already implement the Food Safety Culture principles completely and without compromise, while others already have deficits in the "basics". Technical measures can be used to support the hygiene and behavioral discipline of employees. Approaches from systematic process optimisation are often helpful here. However, allowing sufficient time for the implementation of the required measures must always be an elementary component of a practised Food Safety Culture.
"Basics" of hygiene discipline and behavioral hygiene
In order to introduce an Food Safety Culture system sustainably and with the least possible effort, the following "basics" must be applied consistently throughout the company.
General requirements for employees include personal hygiene, beard and head hair, short and unpainted fingernails and no artificial fingernails or eyelashes. In addition, there must be no illnesses with hygiene-related sympthoms such as diarrhea, vomiting, sputum or tears.
Before starting work, employees must be wearing clean work clothing and clean head and, if necessary, beard coverings. Jewelry, piercings and watches must be removed and possible wounds must be clean and completely covered with detectable material.
No eating, drinking, smoking or chewing gum is permitted while while working in production. In addition, coughing or sneezing over open product is prohibited and hands must not be used to pick the mouth, nose or ears.
Hands must be washed and sanitised before work and after any interruption.
Important details - easy to mitigate
There are simple measures to review the Food Safety Culture "basics" in your operation. For example, standardised and regularly checked washing and disinfection stations, which are easy to use, easy to understand and located in the immediate vicinity of the workplace, can improve the hand washing and disinfection behavior of employees.
Do you have any questions?
Need more information on Food Safety Culture or want to read more examples of "basics" and how to review them? Feel free to take a look at the article "Lebensmittelsicherheitskultur" from our expert Annette Hufnagel from the Food & Hygiene Praxis 2/2023 (in german language) or contact our expert directly.
Lebensmittelsicherheitskultur: "Fix the Basics" - wenn die Praxis nicht mitspielt
Article from Annette Hufnagel in: Food & Hygiene Praxis 2/2023 (in German)