A consumer finds pests in your product: now what?
Picture this: a consumer casually opens one of your products and all of a sudden, he freezes. Inside the packaging, tiny insects are crawling about. The root cause? A contamination that took place during production due to poor storage conditions. With a strong food safety culture (FSC), you could prevent such nightmares.
- How do you build a strong FSC?
- How do you establish your food safety procedures?
- How does your company recover from a food safety incident?
The FASFC frequently identifies non-conformities when inspecting companies without a strong food safety culture (FSC). Often, issues arise due to a lack of established procedures and employee vigilance. The following example illustrates this perfectly.
A consumer contacts you with a concerning message: upon opening one of your products, he found small insects inside the packaging. An investigation reveals that multiple products from the same batch are contaminated and that the root cause lies in your storage facility.
What follows is a true nightmare for any food company: large-scale recalls across all sales points, reputation damage, a temporary production shutdown, and, in the worst case, serious health risks for consumers.
This incident painfully exposes that inspections fell short and that there was likely a lack of employee awareness. In other words, the FSC within the team was insufficient.
A strong FSC exceeds legal requirements. It is an investment in your company’s reliability and resilience, protecting you from harmful consequences of a food safety crisis.
Our three tips:
Train your employees
While you can never eliminate completely the risk of contamination, you can drastically reduce the chances by building a strong FSC. Make sure that your employees become better at detecting and reporting non-conformities.
Organize food safety training on a regular basis and create an environment where everyone feels comfortable reporting non-conformities.
Establish procedures and regularly review them
Having clear procedures in place and following them is essential to minimizing risks. Document escalation protocols and implement preventive measures to avoid incidents.
Gather all agreements and guidelines in one central place and mention them in the crisis manual so your team knows exactly what to do in case of an incident.
Learn from incidents
Each incident is a learning opportunity. Analyse incidents thoroughly and use the insights to optimize your procedures.
Stay informed about other food safety incidents in the food industry and learn from these cases. This not only prevents recurrence but also strengthens long-term food safety awareness.
Are you ready to take your food safety to the next level?
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❓Specific questions or in need of direct advice?
We are here to help with all your food safety challenges. Contact us at contact@foodsecurity.com and discover how we can support you
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