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Point of View ““If you look at foodborne disease trends over the past few decades, it’s clear to me that the soft
stuff is still
the hard stuff" As you think about improving the food safety performance within your organization or area of responsibility, if you aim to create a bigger or better food safety program, then may I suggest that although you may be well-intentioned, you might be missing the mark. Your goal should be to create or strengthen a food safety culture – not a food safety program. There is a big difference between the two. The words we use and how we use them are important. So let’s take a brief moment to review the word culture. Culture is a word that is often used (maybe even overused) in today’s society. As a food safety professional, culture could be one of those terms that you’re uncomfortable with. You might feel much more comfortable talking about terms related to specific microbes, time/temperature processes, post-process contamination, and HACCP – things often called the hard sciences. You might feel less comfortable talking about terms related to human behavior and culture – often referred to as the “soft stuff.” If you look at foodborne disease trends over the past few decades, it’s clear to me that the soft stuff is still the hard stuff. We won’t make dramatic improvements in reducing the global burden of foodborne disease, especially in certain parts of the food system and world, until we get much better at influencing and changing human behavior (the soft stuff). Think about it. If you’re trying to improve the food safety performance of an organization, industry, or region of the world, what you’re really trying to do is change people’s behaviors. Simply put, food safety equals behavior. So what is culture? One of the best definitions I’ve come across by Coreil, Bryant, and Henderson states that “Culture is patterned ways of thought and behavior that characterize a social group, which can be learned through socialization processes and persist through time.” As food safety professionals, a food safety culture can be viewed as how and what the individuals in an organization think about food safety. It’s the food safety behaviors that they routinely practice and demonstrate. According to this definition, employees will learn these thoughts and behaviors by simply becoming part of the company or organizational group. Furthermore, these thoughts or behaviors will permeate throughout the entire organization. If you can truly create a food safety culture, these thoughts and behaviors will be sustained over time as opposed to being the “program of the month” or this year’s focus. In an organization or social group, there is no question about it; food safety is a shared responsibility. However, when it comes to creating a food safety culture, there is one group of individuals who really own it – the leaders. I came across a quote by Edgar Schein, author on organizational culture, which states this point quite well. He said, “Organizational cultures are created by leaders, and one of the most decisive functions of leadership may well be the creation, the management, and – if and when necessary – the destruction of culture.” Although this quote may strike you as being a bit strong, it’s true. Having a strong food safety culture is a choice and it’s the leaders who own it. As a professional in the field of food safety, I encourage you to join us at IAFP and help us lead the way in creating a food safety culture – not just a food safety program. We won’t be as completely effective in reducing the global burden of foodborne disease and advancing food safety worldwide until we do. 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.
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