What is food safety culture?
Despite robust knowledge of how to create safe food, food incidents, outbreaks and breaches of food law still occur. To produce safe food, behaviour and awareness must align with safe food practices. Food safety culture encompasses how everyone, including managers and employees, think and act in their job on a consistent basis. It reflects the commitment to food safety at every step and within every role.
Food safety culture is “the way we do things around here” when it comes to safe food, whether people are watching or not. It’s the set of shared beliefs, values, and attitudes that guide everyone's behaviour—from managers to frontline employees—to ensure safe food is produced consistently. It is about how all current food safety systems interact with people to result in safe food. Food safety culture is the result of the relationship between the company’s food safety awareness and management, the environmental setting and the staff behaviour within an organisation.
Why is Food Safety Culture Important?
It is a legal requirement for all food businesses involved in production, processing, distribution, and retailing to establish, maintain, and provide evidence of an appropriate food safety culture. Having an appropriate food safety culture in your food business enhances food safety and reduces risk. By increasing awareness and adopting safe food behaviours, an appropriate food safety culture can:
- Maintain high food hygiene and safety standards and regulatory compliance
- Aid in keeping consumers safe from foodborne illness.
- Increase transparency and improve communication among all employees.
- Help prevent problems that results from unsafe food
How do I develop my food business’s food safety culture?
Food safety culture complements the safe food practices you already implement. Flexibility in implementation based on the nature and size of the food business should be accounted for. Below are a few guiding principles to help you establish and implement your business’s food safety culture:
1. Management Commitment & Leadership – Managers and leaders must lead by example and show a clear commitment to food safety. This includes providing the necessary resources, ensuring roles and responsibilities are clear, and actively prioritising food safety at all times.
2. Communication & Awareness – Food businesses should ensure open and clear communication between all employees and management. Everyone should be aware of food safety hazards and their importance through effective, two-way communication and tailored training.
3. Employee Engagement – Employee engagement can help maintain the integrity of the food hygiene system. Employees should be encouraged to speak with leaders and management about their role and any concerns they may have. Leadership support of staff engagement, a safe reporting culture, and follow up on all communications are important aspects for employee engagement. Employees feel empowered to do the right thing and to take corrective actions. Feedback and safe reporting culture should be encouraged.
4. Maintaining & Verifying – Management must verify that controls are being performed, that documentation is up to date, that appropriate training and supervision are in place, and that the business is compliant with relevant regulatory requirements. This can be achieved by regular audits, root cause analysis when issues arise, review of customer feedback, or a review of corrective actions utilized. Results are always discussed, and employee feedback is incorporated into new or improved procedures.
5. Continuous Improvement & Compliance – Food safety is an ongoing process of learning and improvement. Food Business operators should continually review their performance, learn from any incidents, and make adjustments to procedures to ensure it stays compliant and always gets better.
Resources
We have published a Food Safety Culture Guidance Note and an eLearning module on the FSAI Learning Portal to help you better understand your obligations to develop, maintain and demonstrate appropriate food safety culture in your food business.