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Elements of a world class food safety company differentiate safety performance and provide leadership to the industry. These elements result in best practices that are important to the industry if improvements are sustained in the supply chain.
Food safety is an important issue and just when you think that you have heard about one nationwide recall another major situation is reported. More and more these recalls include basic foods that have been safely provided to the market for many years, generations and even centuries. What has changed? Why can’t improvements be made to eliminate the issues that continue to occur?
In the current legislative climate Food Safety has gone from a priority to less of a concern when compared to the other issues being addressed. What is amazing about this situation is that safety reform has across the board support including, the public, both houses of congress, industry and the administration? It almost appears that the system has forgotten how to address something that is so well and mutually supported? As time moves on industry appears to be waiting for confirmation on the new regulations so they can make the necessary plans to more effectively deal with the anticipated changes; however, nothing is happing.
If we look at the food industry and the various market leaders as measured by financial success you really do not see a measure for food safety that is apparent as part of the key measures indicating performance. Food safety typically is implied and both the brand and the perceived level of food safety compliance provide the public with the confidence that the food they buy is safe; however, is this enough? Also, is the push for lower cost lowering the bar for food safety? Do not take this incorrectly. Far and away nearly all food companies especially in the US are concerned and strive to only provide safe food, but this market continues to undergo rapid change.
There has been significant quality focus on cars, electronics and other manufactured equipment and, as a society, appear pretty content with quality in these industries. Periodic problems that do occur appear on a much less frequent basis than food concerns that we face. While, no other product impacts the safety of the population more than food and water, the concerns only appear to be growing. Indications are that despite technological advances, food safety is becoming more difficult to manage. To fuel this concern the sourcing and processing of our food supply is only becoming more complicated and difficult to manage and regulate.
With the highly visible food safety issues there is a major concern of the population as shown in various recent studies. What appeared to be satisfactory control of food safety in the past appears to be less adequate than the results in current times.
The many changes in the global market and culture have led to more variability in sourcing, processing, handling and storage of food, raw materials and ingredients. The “field to fork” equation has become much more complex in a short period of time making the problems that exist more difficult to understand. Part of the complication is that more and more of our base food, raw materials, packaging and ingredients are imported from a growing number of foreign countries.
So what needs to be done to ensure safe food or food safety?
One approach for the companies that are part of the food supply chain is to assess their organizational infrastructure. Hopefully, the companies and individual employees that comprise these companies clearly understand that the primary goal is to provide the consumer with safe food product while realizing the economic return based on the quality, nutritional value and taste of the product. A key is that each of these individuals are qualified for their job and responsibility, fit for work and appropriately deployed and supervised.
A good question is where do we start to improve food safety today? Do you start with a product, recipe, raw materials, processes or regulation? This begs the question “what comes first the chicken or the egg.” A key element of every facet of the food supply chain is the use of the human resources necessary to complete each level of activity in an effective manner. As with any other process or requirement the effectiveness is always based on the capability and performance of the people (human resources) involved. Considering this importance of food quality, if you are going to design or re-design an organization to provide food safe product and services where do you begin to make the necessary changes?
As has been proven over and over again the likely starting point is the organization. An incapable or immature organization cannot ensure quality even from a well designed process; however, a capable organization can do what is necessary to provide process and product quality even with an imperfect process. Some of the questions related to the organization that need to be asked and addressed include what are the key roles, the capability, the experience and the management requirements. If we compare these elements of an organization it is very apparent that a weakness in any of these areas results in a weakness to the entire organization and the ability to provide a safe product. You would not want to assume that a food company without well defined roles or proper experience can provide safe food if they are not fully aware of their specific responsibilities or have not experienced all the conditions that can affect food safety.
For a food company participant to succeed in any parts of the food supply chain it must provide safe food products and services and still achieve necessary levels of return on investment and value. The elements of a successful food company require an organization that encompasses some basics including, leadership, involvement, participation, process controls, deployment, experience, training, human factors and human capital.
Elements of a world class food organization include a number of general and specific competencies that can be defined by the food company’s structure, leadership, investments, assets, processes, procedures and utilization of human capital. The organizational structural design elements of a food safe company include:
- A well defined organizational structure to best ensure both food safety and financial performance based on critical mass of industry experience, knowledge and communication skills
- Engrained leadership, roles, successful human factor deployment and responsibilities within the organization to assign specific responsibilities and interactions to achieve food safety as well as business performance
- Experience in completing the role responsibilities including direct work experience, verified knowledge, reporting capability, technical training and education necessary to provide the results that are necessary from each functional position to achieve food safety and business performance.
- Management and management systems which provide leadership, plans, expectations, processes, information technology, rules, compliance, measures, human factors and data to ensure safe food and overall integrity.
- Succession planning to ensure qualified back-ups at all levels of the organization at all times.
Food companies that seek to offer safe food and continue to improve their performance first need to review and understand the importance of a well developed organization and use of human capital if they are going to achieve 100% compliance and acceptable levels of performance and continued improvement.
How well positioned is your company’s organization and best use of human capital in all areas described and are there any weaknesses that could impact the safety of the food that you provide to the food market? When unanticipated events occur can your organization provide the same food safe product as during normal operations?
At the time of this writing the US is currently faced with the largest “egg” recall in history of the US with more than 1500 people infected by Salmonella contaminated product. Would better organizational deployment and management have made a difference to this company in providing safe food? The obvious answer is yes; however, the industry and market need to change as well. Food safety competition will drive food safe product.
Contact Kestrel Management if you or your company has any questions related to this information. We support industry by reducing your enterprise risk in meeting safety within the food and food ingredient supply chain. Our processes, dynaQ compliance system and human factors (HFit) will assist you in protecting the reputation and value of your company. Kestrel Management is an industry leader and specializes in helping companies reduce risks, comply with regulations and maintain operating efficiencies. Contact Kestrel Management at www.kestrelmanagement.com or the following email for more information.
Future blogs and articles will continue to expand on the key elements of a food safe company.
Bill Bremer, Principal of Food Safety, Kestrel Management Services, LLC @
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