Julia Stewart:

Hello, welcome back to PMA’s audio blog, “Ask Dr. Bob.” I’m Julia Stewart. PMA’s Chief Science Officer Dr. Bob Whitaker is back with me to continue our discussion of the four basic attributes of a food safety culture.  So far we have covered the attributes of Responsibility and Knowledge.

Bob, what role does Communication, the third attribute, play?

Bob Whitaker:

Julia, communication should be directed in two ways: internally, at your own employees and externally to suppliers, vendors, customers, and consumers. First let’s talk about internal communications. 

We all set goals every year for hitting specific sales numbers, controlling operational costs, employee retention, or overall profitability. To truly integrate food safety into our corporate culture, we also need to set food safety goals for our companies, and develop tools to measure food safety performance as a company.  It is even more effective when these company food safety goals are communicated throughout the organization and individual employees “own” these goals as part of their personal performance plan.

Employee communication is vital to make sure your workforce understands how important food safety is to the company. You need to ask yourself, can our employees speak with authority about our programs, and explain them adequately to others? Each employee should know how they fit into the food safety scheme. For example, the guy at the purchasing desk plays a vital role in your corporate food safety program. If you are short on a product, and your buyer sources from a buddy because he can get it fast and at a good price but has no knowledge of whether the grower even has a food safety program, then he has just compromised your program and put your company at risk. That purchasing employee needs to understand the goals of your corporate food safety program and why his or her role is so vital in that plan.  On the other hand, if your sales person can answer food safety questions for customers, that can only help bolster their confidence in your programs. In addition, involving all your employees in the program and setting goals can become a source of pride and help give your company an identity.

External communications also need to be part of your food safety programs. Your suppliers need to be as passionate as you are about food safety – and you need to reward those that share your commitment to food safety with your business.

Finally, also be sure your customers are aware of your commitment. You accomplish this by becoming a true partner with them on this issue. Create data sharing capabilities where customers can access food safety data like audits, product tests, risk assessments, HACCP data, and other related food safety information. Transparency builds confidence and this type of openness and dialogue creates “touch points” where employees on the sales desk, product development, marketing, production and food safety can reach out to your customers and reinforce your commitment to food safety in the course of daily business transactions. 

 Of course, the time to communicate is now, don’t wait until a crisis occurs. We need to aggressively seek out opportunities to speak about our programs and address supplier, customer and consumer concerns every day.

Julia:

Thank you, Bob. PMA’s consumer surveys show that the more information consumers have, the more confident they are about overall food safety. As a public relations professional with both marketing and crisis management expertise, I am completely sold on the importance of strong Internal and external communication, delivered sooner rather than later.

Thanks very much to our listeners, please join us again next time!

Julia Stewart:

Hello, this is PMA PR Director Julia Stewart, and welcome back to PMA’s audio blog, “Ask Dr. Bob.” PMA’s Chief Science Officer Dr. Bob Whitaker and I have been talking about the importance of a companywide food safety culture. Most recently we’ve been discussing the four basic attributes of such a culture.  In the last post we covered the first attribute of Responsibility. Today, Bob will share more detail on the second attribute, which is Knowledge. 

Bob, just what do you mean in talking about Knowledge as it relates to food safety?

Bob Whitaker:

Julia, the second attribute of a food safety culture is knowledge – and sometimes this is the scariest part of food safety for companies to deal with. We get intimidated because to “do” food safety well, we have to get into science.  There is some truth to that.  After all, it is always best if the person managing your food safety efforts knows some microbiology, is familiar with agricultural practices, and understands basic biological and chemical concepts. But if you don’t currently have that capability in-house, there are a number of resources available to for you gain the knowledge you need to develop a fully integrated food safety program.

The first step is to “know what you don’t know”. Reach out for help. Trade associations, commodity groups, universities, consultants and even regulators are great sources of information as you look to build or upgrade your food safety efforts. There are a number of tools already available to help improve the food safety competence of operations, you won’t need to reinvent the wheel. It is important to understand how these tools can be used most effectively in our specific operations. It is also important to note, that you likely have a number of internal “experts” in your company that can help you build your food safety program.  Food safety is centered on risk assessment and risk management.  In order to perform risk assessment properly, you need to use the knowledge and experience of your supervisors and managers who work in your operations every day.  They know how things are done and can outline is amazing detail every step of your operation.  By incorporating their expertise and using a team approach to performing risk assessment and developing best practices to manage those risks, your company’s food safety plan suddenly becomes their plan; they have ownership in your food safety efforts and you have made them advocates and partners in your company’s food safety performance. 

Don’t forget the importance of emerging technologies and new research findings in food safety.  There is a great deal of research on produce food safety currently underway. Your job is to develop ways to access this information, and embrace resulting innovations that can help improve your particular food safety programs. You can get important updates from your trade associations like PMA, from universities, the internet, trusted vendors, or the Center for Produce Safety at the University of California at Davis.  PMA was instrumental in establishing the center to help meet the global produce industry’s food safety research needs, and I chair the center’s technical committee.

Training is another important aspect of knowledge in any food safety program. I have found employees generally want to do the right thing; they just need to be trained properly.  Employees learn best when the training is made personal. Don’t just train, also explain – make sure employees understand the importance of the action you want them to perform. That will have more impact and serve as a constant reminder of why what they’re doing matters. Remember, your company is only as food safe as your weakest link. You want that minimum-wage employee working on the third shift when you’re home in bed to be as well trained as possible. 

Julia:

Thank you, Bob, for reminding us of the importance of Knowledge in building a food safety culture.  We look forward to talking about the remaining attributes in future posts.

Thanks very much to our listeners, please join us again next time!

Julia Stewart:

Hello, and welcome to PMA’s audio blog, “Ask Dr. Bob.” I’m Julia Stewart, PMA’s PR Director. Our Chief Science Officer Dr. Bob Whitaker has previously explained the rationale for engraining a food safety culture into your daily business operations, and now we are outlining the four basic attributes of a food safety culture.    

Bob, tell us more about the first attribute, Responsibility…

Bob Whitaker:

Julia, when it comes to food safety, taking responsibility for it starts at the top.  The president or CEO must make food safety a priority for the company, and then enforce that priority every day using his or her senior managers. When the boss believes in the importance of food safety, the employees soon make it their priority as well.  It is important that senior management doesn’t just assign responsibility for food safety to their quality assurance group, with everyone else in the company remaining blissfully ignorant of food safety practices.  Food safety is every employee’s responsibility, top to bottom. All employees need to be accountable for the roles they play in producing safe food.  To do this, the president or CEO must see to it that each employees’ role in operating the company’s food safety program is effectively communicated.

Taking responsibility for food safety not only means the CEO makes it a priority and leads the charge, it means making tough decisions. It means not cutting back on food safety even in difficult times like we have today with a downturn in the economy and every business looking to trim costs. It means when you are short on product and have orders to fill, you can’t reach out to an unapproved supplier with an unknown food safety program just to make the order.  Likewise, if one of your fields becomes compromised prior to harvest, no matter how badly you need the product, you can’t use it.  If a coveted customer wants you to shave the price a bit more, it can’t come from the food safety budget. Food safety leadership means sometimes you have to say “no”.  These are tough decisions, especially in the produce industry where margins are already narrow and opportunities often arise when product supply shortages due to weather or other factors can tempt even the most devout advocates for food safety to “cut a corner” to take advantage of a “hot” market.  It is here when leadership counts the most and the tough decision has to be made to take responsibility and protect the safety of your products and those that will purchase and consume it.     

Some buyers and suppliers recognize the value of developing company-wide food safety programs and have done so, while others have programs that are really just about taking audits and are not always consistent in application. And even after all we’ve been through as an industry over the last few years, there are a small number of operators refusing to change to meet today’s food safety requirements.   

If you listen to the major companies who have had significant, national food safety crises in the last 20 years and survived them, they all talk about how they have since made food safety an integral part of their everyday business culture. You may remember the Jack in the Box E. coli crisis in 1993 where four people died and several were hospitalized.  After suffering through some dark years, the company emerged in no small part because they embraced food safety, made it part of their business culture and then communicated what they were doing internally to their employees, externally to the suppliers and finally to their customers. 

Julia:

Thank you, Bob, for explaining the role and importance of Responsibility in building a company food safety culture.  We look forward to your explanations of the other attributes in future posts.

Thanks very much to our listeners, please join us again next time!