of a Manufacturing Facility - RESOLVE

1 BY SKIP SEWARD, NANCY DOBMEIER, and MELISSA BARON. Assessing the Food Safety CULTURE. of a Manufacturing Facility Methods and tools, such as surveying line workers as well as management personnel and conducting focus groups, can yield insightful data on how to produce safer food. G. iven that the decisions, reflected in those daily decisions, being produced. actions, and behaviors of all actions, and behaviors that deliver In order to understand the status employees affect food safety, safe and wholesome foods. Our four of the food safety culture at a manu- the concept of food safety core beliefs are: facturing Facility , you should culture has recently become a hot 1. Cultivate. Leadership is conduct a formal assessment. topic of discussion within the food responsible for developing and com- Results of the assessment can then industry as companies look to municating the commitment to food be used to determine which areas, if strengthen their food safety safety, the food safety objectives, any, need to be addressed.

2 Programs. and ensuring that the objectives are Additionally, improvements imple- Essential to the production of met. mented to improve food safety safe food at Manufacturing establish- 2. Educate. Employees at all culture can be measured or tracked ments is having the right mindset; levels shall have the necessary train- by reassessing the culture several that is the right culture to execute ing and skills to be empowered to months later. food safety policies and procedures promote and execute good food Yiannis presents examples of that govern plant operations. A safety decisions and practices. survey questions that could be part strong food safety culture at the 3. Investigate. It is imperative to of an overall communications plan production plant will help drive the look for what we don't want to see on food safety culture.

3 But there is day-to-day decisions, actions, and and to act on any findings that do an absence in the literature of how behaviors that will help to ensure not meet our expectations. It also is to measure or assess food safety the production of safe food. important to incorporate knowledge culture. Food safety culture is driven by of scientific and industry advances Following is a description of the management team at the manu- discovered through investigation. implementing a food safety culture facturing Facility through the 4. Improve and Elevate. System measurement system in a manufac- communications and interactions failures are taken seriously and are turing Facility . with those partners working at the used as continuous improvement plant, and by the decisions the man- opportunities.

4 Tools to Measure Food Safety Culture agement team makes relative to raw Two of the best references on Methods and tools for assessing and materials, in-plant processes, food safety culture have been writ- measuring the state of the food employee practices, training, and ten by Yiannis (2009) and Powell et safety culture in a Manufacturing finished product disposition. The al. (2011). Both publications point Facility include a plant employee management team must set the out the need to understand the food survey, focus groups to be con- reward and recognition processes safety culture at a Manufacturing ducted post-survey, a questionnaire that reinforce food safety. establishment, as it is the basis for for plant management, and the The food safety culture at decisions, actions, and behaviors assessment of pre-shift huddles with ConAgra Foods is our core beliefs that impact the safety of the food line workers and visual and written pg 44 communications in the plant that deviations for each statement.

5 Meetings or huddles on the plant floor with line workers address food safety. After deploying Numerous considerations in devel- and supervisors can help to reinforce the importance of food safety prior to the start of their shifts. these methods and reviewing the oping and administering the survey results, you can make an overall assess- will affect the results. These include ment with recommendations. the introductory remarks, the set- or whether there are differences Administering a survey to all plant ting in which the survey is presented, between supervisors and line workers. personnel line workers as well as the overall look of the survey, whether Survey data provide guidance on supervisors and management is the the survey is translated into the com- topics for discussion in the focus groups.

6 First step in the assessment process. mon languages of the personnel, and Using a neutral moderator, conduct Having all employees take part in the the literacy of employees. If literacy three or more focus groups of 10 or survey is important, as it sets the stage limits comprehension by some employ- fewer employees to confirm survey for communicating that everyone con- ees, you should read each statement responses and the assumptions derived tributes to the plant's food safety aloud to the entire group and only from them to get additional insights culture and that food safety is every- move on to the next statement after around the responses, and to discuss any one's responsibility. The act itself of everyone has had the opportunity to other issues related to food safety cul- taking the survey increases awareness ask for clarification and respond.

7 Ture that the survey may not have of the concept of food safety culture, To allow for consistency across revealed. All employee language groups gets people talking about food safety shifts ( , day, night, afternoon), must be represented, as well as all shifts. culture, and ultimately drives toward plants, and time, pre-written survey It is advisable to conduct a focus group improvements. directions should be read aloud to that includes supervisors and other indi- The survey should consist of state- employees by the administrator. To viduals that make decisions affecting ments that will allow assessment of analyze results most effectively, keep food safety, such as procurement or the engagement and commitment of surveys separated by shift, and have human resources personnel.

8 Management, supervisors, and work- participants note whether they are A management questionnaire ascer- ers toward making safe food (Table 1). hourly or salaried employees. Also, tains how management views and The degree of agreement or disagree- since surveys should be translated to all approaches food safety culture. The ment with each statement by those languages used in the plant, responses questionnaire is a hybrid of a survey, taking the survey is indicated by a can be sorted by language as well. management interview, data review, numeric response from one to four. With this information, you can and best practices discovery. The ques- You can use the numeric responses to ascertain if one shift presents more tionnaire is user-friendly; it can be filled provide average scores and standard opportunities than another, for example, out at the individual's convenience and 45 pg Table 1.

9 Survey to measure the food safety culture in a Manufacturing Facility . enables consistent, temporal compari- safety. Attending a team huddle before whether newsletters include food safety sons should a food safety review be each shift will enable observations on as a regular topic, and whether flyers are repeated at a later date. By having the what and how information is conveyed. used to communicate recent food safety management team complete the ques- Examples of items to be aware of while incidents. tionnaire individually, an assessment observing a pre-shift huddle include: can be made on the alignment of all Food safety is part of the pre-shift Assessment Results team members on the food safety goals. huddle agenda. Figures 1 and 2 illustrate the type of The questionnaire is the basis for a man- Food safety metrics are posted on data that result from application of the agement review of food safety culture.

10 Scoreboards before the huddle. food safety culture survey. Focus group Having the written responses in A translator is present if bilingual observations can be categorized into advance of the management team meet- communication is necessary. core themes. The top observations for ing facilitates a more productive Participants and the facilitator rec- several themes in one assessment, for dialogue. ognize employee contributions to example, conducted by ConAgra were: What is regularly discussed in a pre- food safety. 1. Employee desire shift huddle reinforces to employees on Employees appear to be listening and Both employees and leaders want a daily basis what is important. How the display food safety engagement by food safety held up as an equal to team leader presents information on asking relevant questions.