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Food Safety: once again a cultural matter

Food Safety Culture

A customer returned a product to a food company (a manufacturer of fresh products) because it contains a metal object. This customer luckily noticed it in time and could prevent worse implications. But how did this object end up in a product whose production line includes metal detection? Could this be a matter of sabotage?

What now? It happened to one of our members.

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The company starts an investigation. They can soon rule out the production process. Based on the product in question and its package and transport, the return containers become their prime suspect. Apparently, the internal dishwasher had already been broken for quite some time and only the extremely dirty containers were cleaned externally.

During a previous delivery someone must have left the foreign object in one of the containers, where it remained unnoticed and consequently got mixed up in this (fresh) product during the next shipment…

3 tips!

Tools1

Cleaning agents have a reason of existence!

As a company, you use procedures and tools. If these tools no longer function properly, you must repair them. Moreover, improvisations should be limited as much as possible.
Test procedures2

Do not underestimate the human aspect!

If the functioning of a critical control point depends on human actions solely – which is to avoid ideally – it is a major challenge to keep people on their toes. Instruct, test and evaluate continuously.
LV3

Create and maintain a Food Safety Culture!

Believe us when we say that this is not self-evident. However, you will learn all about this at the Food Security Members' Meeting on 4 October.

Food Security helps its members by:

  • Giving advice in the event of curious complaints.
  • Organizing a Members’ Meeting about ‘Security & Food Safety’ on 4 October 2018. In order to discuss this theme from various angles, we would like to introduce experts such as Dr. Elien De Boeck, who dedicated her PhD to this subject. Moreover, we would like to offer an interactive and instructive session by using real cases of fellow food companies.

 

Meer Learning Point

February 2022

What steps should you take at the first signs of a potential crisis?

February 2022

The FASFC takes a sample of a branded product and sends it to a laboratory. The analysis discovers an exceeded standard. What now? What steps should you take? Can you reduce the risk of an upcoming crisis or avoid it altogether?
January 2022

When the shit hits the fan…

January 2022

You have been called up to manage a crisis. Together with the other crisis team members, you rush over to the crisis room. The department manager has already started with the state of affairs. Unfortunately, the phone does not stop ringing… Emails are still coming in… People are talking at the same time… It is a coming and going. Chaos and stress are increasing. What if we told you that good preparation might save you in this situation? Well-trained employees and a good crisis manual bring structure and overview. Every crisis team member knows his role and can follow a check list, which helps maintaining a calm work flow. This means that also the communications manager can rely on elaborate templates that are attached to the crisis manual.
Is this too good to be true? Or is the crisis manual in need of some improvements?
December 2021

Crisis communication: too little preparation in reality.

December 2021

During our simulation exercises, we often notice that there is no crisis communication toolkit nor a trained spokesperson present. Crisis communication is often the hot potato that is passed on to the marketing or sales manager. Due to a lack of knowledge, experience and training this becomes problematic during a crisis.
How can you step things up?