"Popular Culture"
 
  
 
meatingplace Magazine - October 2008, pg 10
By Ann Bagel Storck, managing editor
 
Faced with ever higher stakes when it comes to food safety, processors look beyond traditional programs to a more pervasive approach.
 
To say the facts surrounding this past summer's Maple Leaf Foods' listeria-related recall are sobering is an understatement. The Toronto-based processor recalled more than 200 brands of ready-to-eat deli meats and sandwiches. The plant linked to the tainted products remained closed for weeks. The company estimated the incident's cost at more than $20 million (Canadian). And a month after the recall, 17 people had died from listeriosis traced back to Maple Leaf products.

Yet in the company's response to the crisis, a familiar refrain emerged.

"We have a strong culture of food safety that these incidents do not uphold," said Rick Young, president of Maple Leaf's consumer foods group.

President and CEO Michael McCain echoed that sentiment, asserting that the company lives "in a culture of food safety."

The concept of a "food safety culture" in the meat industry is not new, but it is becoming more pervasive, especially as alarming statistics show the need for a fresh approach. For example, in mid-July, an Associated Press-Ipsos poll found 46 percent of Americans said they had avoided foods they would normally buy because of food safety concerns.

"Inspection and HACCP and verified and certified ... If those things meant a whole lot, why do we have all these outbreaks?" asks Doug Powell, an associate professor at Kansas State University and scientific director of the International Food Safety Network. "So we're looking at doing something new."

Moving target
Many meat companies voice a commitment to a culture of food safety, but defining what that means is not an exact science.

"It means that everyone in our company understands that food safety is a daily part of doing business," says LeAnn Smith, senior manager of regulatory compliance for West Liberty Foods, a West Liberty, Iowa-based processor of deli meats as well as fresh and cooked turkey products.

"In our organization, we refer to food safety and quality as givens," explains Tim Biela, senior vice president of operations and chief food safety officer at American Foodservice Corp., a King of Prussia, Pa.-based ground beef processor. "They are the first point of thought relative to any decision made."

Powell provides an example of how a food safety culture might function if one employee saw another fail to wash his hands. "The person next to that person would go, 'Dude, wash your hands.' So instead of something that's forced on them, they just adopt it as normal."

The Walt Disney Co. is respected as one of the best examples of a corporation with a culture of food safety. During the American Meat Science Association's Reciprocal Meat Conference in June, Natalie Dyenson, manager of food safety and health for Walt Disney World, outlined several differences between a traditional food safety management system and a behavior-based food safety culture.

"In a behavior-based system, you still focus on the processes, but you also focus on the people," she noted. "You focus on food science, but you also focus on the people and the organizational culture."

Incorporating this approach is a journey rather than a destination. Angie Siemens, vice president, technical services, for Cargill Meat Solutions, links the adoption of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point systems to the idea of a food safety culture. "If a company's HACCP approach is not continually uncovering ways to improve," she says, "then food safety employees aren't following the HACCP concept."

"This is a process," Biela agrees. "You've constantly got to be looking at the process you're managing and the individuals and the psychology within the organization."

Culture creation
The first step in establishing a food safety culture involves homework for management, explains Sybil Stershic, president of Quality Service Marketing in Alburtis, Pa. She says an organization must gauge what employees know about food safety and what they'd like to know, in comparison with what the company needs them to know. "It means carefully listening to your employees," she notes.

The good news, Stershic adds, is that the process need not take long. It might start with employee roundtables, followed by an employee survey. "You can do all this within weeks," she asserts.

Ongoing training is another key component to any food safety culture. Hormel Foods, for one, has developed a comprehensive training program that "begins the moment employees are hired and is reinforced with ongoing food safety education pertinent to their job responsibilities," says Bryan Farnsworth, vice president of quality management.

West Liberty Foods partners with Iowa State University in its training programs, and uses employee feedback to continually improve those programs, Smith notes.

Consistent communication is a key complement to training, and food safety communication is utilizing the latest technology. The International Food Safety Network uses online tools such as a Barf Blog for researchers to post their thoughts on food safety issues and Don't Eat Poop, a Web site (donteatpoop.com) devoted to hand washing.

A common factor among effective communication tools, Stershic says, is that they connect employees with customers. Biela says American Foodservice encourages workers to identify personally with products they produce. "Every individual in our organization is consuming beef products on a regular basis," he notes. "That is our message: 'You're producing food your families will be consuming.'"

Biela believes one-on-one communication with employees is best, so he visits plants regularly. "I spend a lot of time managing by walking around," he explains. "That creates a culture. I'm on the process floor with individuals discussing one-on-one how the tasks they perform help us create the safest products possible."

Hands-on commitment by management is critical, says Jim Marsden, a professor at Kansas State University and senior science advisor for the North American Meat Processors Association. He emphasizes that a food safety culture is useless unless a company invests in technology to make that culture successful. "It's easy to say you have a food safety culture - those are just words," Marsden notes. "But to make the investments in technology and training to make it effective, that's a whole different thing."

Broad benefits
The most obvious benefit of fostering a food safety culture is the absence of food safety problems. Dyenson told AMSA attendees that no major foodborne illness outbreaks have been associated with a Walt Disney World property since 2002.

Each company's reputation rests largely on its food safety record. But a food safety culture benefits more than individual companies. Biela notes, "When beef is affected [by a recall], every company in the sector is impacted." Consequently, Biela makes presentations at industry conferences and has an open-door policy when it comes to American Foodservice's food safety approach.

The commitment to share food safety information is widespread, as evidenced by groups such as the Beef Industry Food Safety Council - of which Biela is a founding member - that bring industry representatives together to find solutions to challenges such as E. coli O157:H7.

"Food safety is everyone's business," says Cargill's Siemens. "That's why we develop new food safety interventions and share them with the rest of the industry. A great example of that is the hide-on carcass wash we've shared with other companies. Sharing this information is for the greater good."

A food safety culture can have peripheral benefits as well, Stershic notes. "The more engaged employees are, the more productive they are," she says. "It all positively impacts the bottom line."

Marsden voices similar sentiments more dramatically: "I think what you'll see is companies that effectively address these problems survive and grow and prosper, and companies that don't will be put out of business - not just because of regulatory actions, but because of consumer resistance and lawsuits and all the things that happen when there's a food safety problem."

Three Rs to remember

Fostering an effective food safety culture depends on every employee committing to the concept. Sybil Stershic, president of Quality Service Marketing in Alburtis, Pa., offers a "3-R formula" for gaining employee commitment to a food safety culture:

Respect: "Respect your employees," Stershic explains. "Give them the tools and training they need. Part of that is listening to them - finding out not only what you think they need, but what they think they need."

Recognition: Rewarding employees for what they do right is critical, Stershic notes. Even simple thank-you messages to workers can be powerful, she says.

Reinforcement: A company must continually support its food safety message through engaging communication tools. "You can do that through the Internet or in team meetings," Stershic says, "whatever face-to-face, in print or online communication vehicles you have."