April 2007

Point of View
April 2007

“A proper mental perspective or mindset is critical to success in food safety"
by Frank Yiannas, IAFP President

As a food safety professional, your success in the area of food safety will depend on a variety of factors, team members, and partnerships. But more than any single thing, for those issues within your span of control or influence, I believe your success is largely dependent on your attitude.

Before you take offense with a commentary on attitude in a scientific journal, let me remind you that scientific method, food safety included, is first and foremost an attitude. That’s right – an attitude. It’s a mindset to search for scientific facts and evidence rather than simply believing what others report, think or say. A more formal definition states that attitude is a mental perspective.

A proper mental perspective or mindset is critical to success in food safety. Let me summarize three good reasons why I believe a proper attitude is so important for success in food safety.

1. Your attitude will determine your actions.

There is no question about it, our thoughts determine attitude and our attitude influences our actions. Only when you have a proper attitude concerning food
safety will you consistently strive to obtain science-based facts untarnished by personal biases, subjective opinions, or personal agendas. And only with science-based facts, can you consistently make the right risk management decisions. In other words, a right attitude leads to right actions and right actions lead to a safer food supply.

2. Your attitude will deter-mine your influence on others.

Every single day, each one of us will influence those we interact with whether we realize it or not. Remember, the way we get our food from farm to fork, the food system, has become increasingly complex and interdependent on many businesses and individuals. Each organization and person within the system has a shared responsibility for food safety. If you have a negative attitude, trust me – it will be evident to others that you interact with by what you say and do. Instead, demonstrate a positive attitude and your results could increase exponentially because of your positive influence on others. A proper attitude towards food safety is sometimes more caught than taught.

3. Your attitude will deter-mine if you’re a fact finder or a fault finder.

Over the course of my career, I have been surprised by the number of times I’ve heard or read about scientists using the word “fault” when talking about a food safety issue, challenge, or outbreak. However, I was trained to believe that as scientists, we are to be fact finders, not fault finders. There is a big difference between the t wo. If an incident does occur, a fact finder’s mission is to determine the facts of what actually happened to establish how the food became contaminated or why the breakdown occurred and what can be done to prevent a reoccurrence. In contrast, a fault finder is primarily interested in casting blame even though the facts may be unclear on what happened. As food safety professionals, I believe we should strive to be fact finders, not fault finders and help with providing answers. Remember, casting blame is easy. Offering solutions is generally more difficult.

In closing, remember that among many other things, food safety is also an attitude. So every now and then, perform a food safety attitude check. Our success in advancing food safety worldwide is dependent on it.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please let me know. You can e-mail me at frank.yiannas@disney.com. Until next month, thanks for reading.