Who is involved in food safety? Everyone.

In the world of food processing, red meat is known as a high risk food.  25% of all outbreaks of foodborn illness can be directly linked back to a meat plant.  As a result of outbreaks of illness, red meat plants are very closely regulated by the USDA.  An inspector is in the plant, walking around on the floor looking at the processing when meat or meat products are in production.  That seems like a good way to stop any potential pathogens, right?  Well, as economists say, it is necessary, but not sufficient.  One FSIS (Food Safety and Inspection Service) inspector, can not prevent all contamination of the product.

As a result, food companies have voluntarily complied with a variety of auditing schemes imposed by the market.  The Global Food Safety Initiative is an umbrella group of food processing, auditing, allied services and non government organizations devoted to food safety, that has authorized a network of auditing schemes for food processing. One such scheme, Safe Quality Food Initiative or SQF has largely been adopted by US meat and food processing companies.  SQF certification means the company has gone through a rigorous assessment of their policies, procedures, and documents to check and see if the company is saying the right thing, doing what they say they are going to do, and, whether what they are doing actually contributes to food safety?

As a food safety consultant, I am deeply interested in creating a culture whereby all actions contribute to the safety and quality of the product.  A safe and wholesome product starts with understanding that a safe food is everyone’s job.  For example, anyone, even upper management, popping onto the production floor, has to follow the same hygiene procedures as a worker who is going to be on the floor all day.  Or, truckers and distributors need to understand not only that the product needs to be kept at the correct temperature, but why it needs to be kept at the correct temperature.  Shipping clerks need to understand that only approved vendors can make deliveries, and thus, the process that approves the vendor, so the clerk is empowered to accept or refuse a shipment, with logical reasons to back him or her up.

It is very exciting to implement this sort of system from the ground up.  However, most companies must go back and re-engineer their processes, and change things around in their plants to comply.  They battle entrenched cultures of “well, we’ve always done it this way”.  But, I sincerely believe that if you teach people about food safety and how to keep food safe during the manufacturing process, all levels can contribute to the process and make it successful