Produce auditworthy every day

"Food safety culture is a comprehensive term. Culture includes the norms and values of an organization and how they come to life in the organization. So food safety culture is actually a reflection of the shared behaviors, norms and values to optimize food safety. It is the behavior that all employees naturally exhibit without the supervision of a supervisor," said Lien Thoen, regional manager at KTBA. The company supports producers and suppliers in the food industry in the areas of quality, safety, laws and regulations. When can you speak of a good food safety culture? "Many companies make an extra effort to have everything right for a scheduled audit. Actually, you should aim for a situation where no audit is needed anymore, so that every day is audit-worthy production. We see that companies are increasingly willing to make this transition. They engage us to guide them in this. 

KTBA supports companies to improve food safety culture. This starts with measuring food safety culture. "With our 'food safety culture' module, we examine the behavior of employees within the organization. This is done through a step-by-step plan. Part of this is a survey that everyone fills out anonymously. We can use this to measure employee involvement and, on the other hand, test the culture of quality." This is the starting point. "Surveys give a general picture, but at the same time are sensitive to socially desirable answers. A second step is therefore a comprehensive survey in which we sniff out the culture on the shop floor by, among other things, conducting interviews with employees, without the supervision of their manager. In this way we get a picture of the culture that prevails in the organization, what employees want and how this can be realized. This is followed by a report that we discuss with the management. In it we also indicate points of improvement to bring the food safety culture to a higher level. With workshops, we support the management in drawing up a plan of action to initiate structural improvements in food safety and quality culture."

Such a survey provides eye-openers. "For example, one company was aware that quality awareness was too low, but had no idea what was causing it. The survey revealed that leadership and communication in particular scored low. From the field survey, it was not so much that communication was difficult, but rather that the basic culture was not optimal. Due to different cultural backgrounds, certain habits such as greeting each other in the morning are very normal for some, but not natural for others. Not being greeted can lead to feelings of hostility when there is no basis for this at all. But, if the basic culture is not good, quality awareness will not go up either. Therefore, this company, together with KTBA, first took steps to improve the basic culture by indicating what employees consider "normal" in the company so that misunderstandings were eliminated. After this, quality awareness automatically went up as well."

If an employee feels good, he will automatically report mistakes and be more aware of his actions. "So it is important as a manager to not only set a good example and indicate what you think is important. Open communication and making sure employees feel safe to report issues are also relevant. Finally, engagement is also important. If employees feel involved in the organization, they will put their best foot forward from intrinsic motivation to ensure food safety."