Food safety issues are a growing concern for the food industry with risks associated with safety practices being out-of-date, food recalls, lack of confidence in the food chains and suppliers, food fraud, brand protection, and the importance of consumer confidence.
The power of a mature food safety culture
Over the last 15 years urbanisation, travel, technology, consumer awareness and increased cost of living has underpinned changes in consumer habits. A lifestyle of convenience is supported by the ease of dining out or ordering in and having access to a variety of cuisines. Consumer awareness of sustainability and its global impact has also had a significant influence on consumer food choices.
Globalisation paired with changing consumer habits means food supply chains are now longer than ever putting greater responsibility on buyers, suppliers, and food handlers throughout the food chain to ensure food safety risks are effectively identified and managed for the prevention of consumer injury and illness, food withdrawals and recalls.
Food safety risks we once knew, have and will continue to evolve into something that is unfamiliar, for example, intentional acts of adulteration (food fraud) and acts of intentional sabotage to cause harm (food threats). An organisation's capacity to anticipate and react to food safety threats, manage throughout a crisis or disruption confidently (and survive from it) is known as Organisational Resilience. An organisation must be able to exhibit internal traits of coherence, agility and adaptiveness to be able to respond effectively to change and escalate issues at times of crisis. The maturity level of an organisations food safety culture is a key factor in how resilient an organisation can be.
Critical to improving food safety culture is to understand cultural differences, values, and beliefs of the workforce. It is important for businesses to use positive reinforcement to facilitate behavioural change for improving attitude and mindset towards food safety and embed into company values that we no longer tolerate the food safety risks we once used to walk past, as the food safety risks we now accept.
When we look at food safety culture, it should be our ultimate goal to have everyone at the same level, with the same mindset. To empower each individual within the organisation, to practice positive behaviours that promotes food safety, where all employees demonstrate underlying values of:
 Feeling that food safety is the #1 priority |  Thinking that food safety is the #1 priority |  Acting with food safety as #1 priority |
Obtaining a benchmark of your organisation's food safety culture is the first step, followed by setting objectives to help improve the food safety culture. This can be done by measuring workforce competency in food safety risk management (in relation to their role), as well as their level of understanding around negative behaviours leading to unsafe food. Negative behaviours have the risk of causing severe illness, injury, or even death, jeopardizing brand reputation, breaking consumer trust, and business financial loss.
Once food safety culture is ingrained and the intentions right, everyone feels valued and confident. The organisation will be more resilient at times of disruption and crisis caused by food safety-related incidents. In the same token organisations will also be better prepared to react and adapt to opportunities and the change they may bring.
No matter where you are in the Food Safety process, switching to PwC is free, secure and straightforward. If you’d like to find out more about how PwC can help your business in this area, or get an obligation-free quote for our certification services, please get in touch.
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