Food safety culture is the learned and shared values, beliefs, and norms that affect attitudes and behaviors towards food safety throughout an organization. It is how everyone from all levels and functions in an organization thinks and acts in their daily job to make sure the food they make or serve is safe to eat. A strong, positive food safety culture can help protect consumers from foodborne illness and, in turn, your organization’s reputation.
Consider culture in a broader sense; your family’s, community’s, or city’s culture. Culture is a way of life. It is reflected in symbols, behaviors, and beliefs that people accept without thinking much about them.
The same is true for food safety culture. Your organization has a way of doing things, from signage to policies to the attitudes of employees. That way of doing things reflects your shared beliefs, even if no one has intentionally thought about it. But without ongoing intentional planning and evaluation, a poor food safety culture can persist and a positive food safety culture can erode.
Culture manifests in three layers. The surface is easier to see and easier to change, but as you go deeper, culture can be difficult to see and even more difficult to change.
See: At the most superficial level, culture appears in the form of artifacts – the tangible parts of food safety. This can include posters, policies, dress codes, and even metrics like KPIs.
Say: A bit deeper down, culture appears in espoused values – the outward-facing goals and principles of an organization. This can include value statements, presentations from senior leaders, and ways food safety is included in regular communications.
Feel: At the deepest layer, the core, culture appears in the underlying beliefs of all employees. Discovering what employees truly believe about food safety is difficult but essential to understanding your organization’s food safety culture.
Jordan and Taylor work at the same grocery store but have very different roles. Jordan is an office administrator and Taylor is an attendant in the store’s deli.
When they arrive at work, both see signs reminding them of food safety procedures. Additionally, Jordan’s files include onboarding materials and job descriptions, where food safety and food safety culture have devoted sections, while Taylor’s locker room has clearly marked zones for storing personal items and donning PPE. These reminders and processes for food safety are the visible artifacts of the store’s culture Jordan and Taylor encounter daily.
Every week, senior leadership sends a newsletter with food safety updates and reminders to all employees. The core values of the store, including value statements about food safety, are in the signature line of all employees’ emails. These inward- and outward-facing statements are the espoused values Taylor and Jordan hear from their leadership team and share with other employees and customers.
Taylor and Jordan both believe they have a role in food safety. Taylor knows every choice she makes helps protect customers who trust her to provide safe food. Jordan and other office staff who know they can still support food safety in the store in how they make financial and human resources decisions.
The different ways Jordan and Taylor encounter food safety culture in the store, from policies and posters to values and beliefs, ground their commitment to doing what is right in food safety.
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