Protecting consumers by building strong food safety cultures
Food-focused companies like Walmart are working with The Alliance to Stop Foodborne Illness to continue making food safety a priority. Walmart has been a member of The Alliance to Stop Foodborne Illness since 2018 and continues to contribute its best practices and knowledge to help improve food safety cultures throughout the food system.
We spoke with members of Walmart’s Food Safety Team – Sara Mortimore, Patrick Pimentel and Dan Fone – to discuss how they’re investing in a long-term, mature food safety culture.
Sara Mortimore, Vice President Global Food Safety: Food safety is more than a priority or a regulatory requirement. Food safety is part of Walmart’s culture – that it’s everyone’s responsibility of doing what’s right when no one is watching.
Our food safety management system is science-based, incorporates industry best practices, and empowers internal compliance teams to monitor and manage key food safety controls throughout our supply chain. That system goes deep, and starts with our supplier partners, through the transportation and distribution network, until the final destination at our stores and clubs, or sold through our eCommerce platforms.
We always want team members and customers to trust that the food and beverages they buy from us are safe to eat, and we are committed to maintaining their trust.
Patrick Pimentel, Director, Food Safety & Regulatory: Everyday, to reduce foodborne illness, we highlight our “Food Safety High Five” in all stores, clubs, and distribution centers to give associates clear direction as they carry out their daily tasks based on guidelines from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the World Health Organization (WHO). See our graphic below.
We also work to ensure we have good sourcing practices, which means having approved suppliers who follow Walmart’s food safety standards. This includes recognition of GFSI, and our recently launched ‘“Strive for Excellence” supplier program that includes additional requirements and support for suppliers in food safety education.
We also look for opportunities to work food safety into topics people are already talking about – such as our “Quick Tips for Food Safety” videos we tailor toward different holidays and events. By tying food safety to people’s everyday lives, we reinforce the importance of food safety in our operations. We strive for continuous improvement and demonstrate a food safety culture throughout our company from the top down. It is important not just in our stores but for our leadership team as well.
Dan Fone, Senior Director, U.S. Food Safety: Training is an essential enabler in our food safety program for stores and clubs. We constantly solicit feedback through surveys to improve content and approaches while measuring retention of knowledge. We use this feedback in several ways:
Our training program is constantly evolving so that we present the most important information in a way that is also engaging for associates.
Mortimore: A lot of people, procedures, and continuous improvement and innovation are used to measure progress and impact of food safety standards across Walmart. One way is through our recently launched “Pressure Dial System” tool. This software allows us to track major food safety data categories across our system and see opportunities for improvement, down to the individual store. We can identify and address issues quicker and evaluate how improvements are made. We recently received the Food Marketing Institute’s 2023 Food Safety Innovation Award for this software, which is a true honor and testament to our hardworking food safety team.
We also measure and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) in all our facilities, keeping a close eye on our Food Safety High Fives while leveraging data throughout the enterprise, to proactively work to predict and prevent food safety issues before they happen. Feedback including, customer opinions and our own Associate Engagement Surveys (AES) help us measure effectiveness and whether our programs are successful.
Pimentel: Walmart has been a proud partner of the Alliance for several years. We represent the retail industry and are active participants in the various working groups, regulatory committees, and food safety video series offered by the Alliance.
The Food Safety Culture Video Series working group has been instrumental in driving forward our own internal goals to enhance food safety culture. By partnering with the Alliance, Walmart created a food safety culture video featuring Piper, the daughter of one of our Sam’s Club merchants, who discusses how she was personally impacted by foodborne illness.
Additionally, the Alliance has created many videos and discussion guides that we use to help build content for our Food Safety awareness toolkit and communications.
Fone: The connection the Alliance has with consumers, especially those who have experienced the tragic consequences of a foodborne illness, serves as an important reminder to everyone involved with food procurement, product development, transportation and distribution, and retailing of food at Walmart that there are real risks and consequences to food safety non-compliance.
Walmart believes strongly in the Alliance’s goal of bringing together leading food companies and consumers personally impacted by food safety issues to affect positive change through food safety advocacy, policy and regulatory influence, and industry leadership.
Stop Foodborne Illness is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Donations are tax-deductible to the extent the law allows.
