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
