Julia Stewart:

Hello, and welcome back to PMA’s audio blog, “Ask Dr. Bob.” I’m Julia Stewart. PMA’s Chief Science Officer Dr. Bob Whitaker and I have been talking about why and how to integrate a food safety culture into your corporate culture. Today, he is with me to discuss the four basic attributes of a culture of food safety. In his previous posts, Dr. Bob has discussed the importance of integrating food safety into the culture of the business, and looking at the ROI of food safety.

Bob, now that we understand the importance of why we need to look at food safety from an integrated perspective, just how do we go about creating a food safety culture?

Bob Whitaker:

Julia, there are four basic attributes of a food safety culture. First off, you have to take responsibility for the safety of your products and it has to start at the top of the organization chart and run down through the entire system. Second, you have to access the technical knowledge required to build a fully integrated food safety program…and here is a hint, a lot of that knowledge already exists in your company. Third, you have to communicate clearly and often regarding food safety, both internally and externally.  Last, you can never, ever be satisfied – food safety as an area of continuous improvement. 

As an industry, we need to begin to mature our discussion on food safety, and embrace each and every one of these four attributes. Too often we get bogged down in tactical issues like auditing and testing, when true improvement in food safety competence will only come when food safety becomes integrated into our individual business cultures.  It has to become part of our corporate fabric.  These four key attributes to building a food safety culture: taking responsibility, searching out and incorporating knowledge, communicating internally and externally about food safety, and developing a mindset of continual improvement have to become part of our everyday thought process as we operate our businesses. These are all critical to a truly successful approach to food safety.

Viewing corporate investment in food safety in the more traditional business approach of return on investment helps provide context to the costs of food safety, and puts perspective on these costs versus others we have historically dealt with in business. When the true ROI is clear, then devoting resources to each of these four areas may be more palatable. In the end, consumers expect our products to be safe – not to mention regulators and legislators.  For the future of our own businesses and the industry as a whole, we have to spare no effort to be sure we are doing all we can to meet that expectation.

In my upcoming posts, I’ll be discussing each of these attributes in detail, but this gives you the overall idea.

Julia:

Thank you, Bob. This really sets the stage for better understanding how to build a food safety culture in our companies and in the industry. We look forward to hearing more about each of these attributes.

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

Julia Stewart:
Hi, 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 are continuing our talk about why and how to build a food safety culture. In our last post, Dr. Bob presented the reasons for why we as an industry need to have a different type of food safety discussion and look at the issue differently than we have in the past.

Bob, in addition to meeting consumer expectations and protecting our business, what else should we be considering with respect to the food safety discussion?
Bob Whitaker:
Julia, food safety has to be seen by top management as a mandatory business function – just as important to the operation of the company as sales, production, or human resources.  It should be fully integrated into the fabric of the company and executed daily, even in a tough economy.

To accomplish that goal, the food safety program needs to be adequately resourced. Suppliers cannot be expected to shoulder food safety costs all on their own, but the cost each company does bear should be viewed in the same context as one would look at capital outlays for equipment – that is, it should be looked at on a return on investment basis.  We have no problem in this industry calculating the return on investment if we need to buy a new packing line or tractor, we simply look at the cost and then determine the opportunity to be gained and the time required to pay off the investment. We should do the same thing for food safety.

To explain the ROI analogy, let’s say we have a hypothetical company, one that handles 20 million cartons a year and has $150 million in total sales. Without going into all the specifics here, I estimate that a good-quality food safety program for our hypothetical company would cost between $850,000 and $1 million per year.  So what percentage of company expenses is that? If you take the high end of that cost range, $1 million, that is still only 0.6% of that hypothetical company’s total sales.  Compared to raw products, packaging, labor and fuel, it turns out food safety is a minor expense.  $1 million represents a nickel a box over the 20 million cartons our hypothetical company sells per year. To give you some perspective, the box alone, empty and palletized, costs over a dollar. 

So, assuming we spend our money well and our little company has effectively integrated food safety into its corporate culture; that investment now permits us to effectively manage the potential risks associated with our products. In our analysis of return on investment, we are spending a million dollars to protect the assets of our company. Perhaps another way to look at it is that your million-dollar-a-year investment helps protect your $150 million per year in sales.  If you are unfortunate enough to have a food safety crisis associated with your products, what would happen to your sales?  There is a pretty good chance your sales would take a big hit, and you would have to expend resources to execute a recall, pay legal fees, public relations fees, perhaps fines, write off crop losses and inevitably have increased insurance costs going forward.

The million dollars may also be viewed as an investment in the future of your business. To be able to confidently communicate your food safety program to a customer and clearly demonstrate your risk assessment and management procedures should help you to secure an existing customer, and to reassure a prospective customer. Lastly, perhaps your million dollar investment lets you sleep better at night, knowing you are doing all you can to ensure your products are as safe as possible.  I’ve talked to a lot of people at companies who have been through food safety issues where people have been injured, and they tell me there is almost no price they wouldn’t pay to reverse those injuries.

Julia:
Thank you, Bob. That explanation really helps us see food safety not as an expense line on a budget that needs to be minimized, but rather from an ROI perspective and how it’s the right thing to do not only for our consumers, but also for the health of our company.

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

Julia Stewart:
Hi, this is PMA PR Director Julia Stewart, and welcome back to PMA’s audio blog, “Ask Dr. Bob.”
It’s springtime, the time of year when produce food safety unfortunately ends up being bad news somewhere, sometime. It was this time last year that the Salmonella saintpaul outbreak was making headlines, sickening thousands and shutting down the tomato market. That begs the question, so what do we need to do differently?

PMA’s Chief Science Officer Dr. Bob Whitaker is with me today to talk about building a food safety culture. As part of our commitment to providing consumers at supermarkets and restaurants with safe, nutritious products, the fresh fruit and vegetable industry has already devoted considerable attention to food safety.  Now, our Dr. Bob is challenging the industry to look at food safety from a different perspective…

Bob, why should we have food safety programs? Why do we need to have a different type of food safety discussion now?

Bob Whitaker:

Julia, when we talk about food safety in this industry, we have a tendency to focus our discussions on tactical areas like food safety auditing, product testing, sanitizers, “kill” steps, regulatory issues and legislative developments.  These topics are important to be sure, but these tools by themselves cannot make our products safer.  Today, I’d like to talk about a different mindset, a change in thinking that can advance the cause of food safety in our industry. 

Let’s start by looking at why we really need to have food safety programs. The first reason is that consumers expect our products to be safe – rightfully so, and we have a fundamental obligation to try to meet that expectation.  We know we grow our products out in open fields subject to a number of potential risk factors and that our products are distributed via multiple and complex channels with numerous “touch” points.  Guarantees of safety are not possible.  Though we understand this and groups like the Food and Drug Administration know this, it is a tough message to convey to consumers. So, we have to manage these potential risks to minimize the chances for contamination that can make consumers sick.

The second reason to have a food safety program is to protect your own business — to protect your brand, to gain your customers’ confidence, to secure your capital investment, to provide a reliable work environment for your employees and to meet your commitments to the rest of the industry to produce the safest products possible.  I can’t think of any situation where the senior management or the president of a company wouldn’t do everything in their power to protect their business, their livelihoods and their reputations. 

Food safety is not passive, it is not impersonal – it is very active, and very personal.  It needs to be part of our business culture.
Julia:
Thank you, Bob. I think our members will agree that a food safety problem is one of the most devastating things that can happen to a company – and that’s after it has devastated consumers first. We all know food safety is important. PMA encourages our members to have thorough food safety programs, and we also support reasonable, science-based food safety solutions and consumer and foodservice worker education on safe food handling. We are partnering diligently with industry and regulatory and legislative organizations for better, stronger food safety programs – that’s a goal that all of us can support.  The issue then becomes how to do it. I look forward to talking with you more about this subject next time.
Thanks very much to our listeners, please join us again soon!