Advance Your Food Safety Culture with a Stronger Sense of Purpose

Posted by Zosi Team

Regulations are essential in protecting the quality of foods everywhere. But they can only go so far. Food safety can only truly be effective when it’s part of a mature food safety culture.

Part of that culture involves understanding who is responsible for food safety and why it’s important. Some frontline workers might say it’s the responsibility of quality control or management. However, it’s everyone’s responsibility to understand the purpose of food safety and the importance of saying something when they see something.   

A strong food safety culture is essential to reducing recalls and employee turnover while maximizing productivity and ensuring compliance. That’s why it’s important for everyone to understand their role in providing safe food. Creating a sense of purpose should start on the first day of work and be emphasized from all levels internally, from CEOs down to frontline workers. And it should be driven by all departments, including procurement, HR, and quality control.

Intertek Alchemy has a long history of helping leading food manufacturers grow and mature their food safety cultures. Seventy-five of the top 100 food manufacturers rely on Intertek Alchemy’s training solutions that include a comprehensive training library, a robust learning management system, and a range of technology-driven training apps.

Food safety training demands may vary greatly depending on a company’s size, location and types of food they manufacture.

A large organization might, for example, be more challenged to find the right place and time to start training with a platform that appeals to all levels of workers and management, including those with different languages and nationalities.

Smaller companies might lack someone dedicated to selecting training and administering programs to employees. Both need a way to meet external compliance regulations and demonstrate how food safety improves their business.

Intertek Alchemy recently announced a new online food safety culture training program that builds and maintains an informed culture coalition within multiple organizations. Zosi’s Food Safety Culture Course and Workshop provides tools that are specific to your environment.

The course and workshop include GFSI-based food safety culture instruction, complimented with a best practice case study, and a culture gauge providing customized action plans and resources.

This unique solution was developed in partnership with Cultivate SA, a Swiss-based company led by Dr. Lone Jespersen, one of the leading voices in food safety culture and chair of the GFSI Food Safety Culture Working Group.

Cultivate SA and Intertek Alchemy collaborated to create a program that can be customized to fit any manufacturer’s unique needs, taking into account the maturity of your current food safety culture, employees, languages, products, regulations, and location.

Individuals or cross-functional teams of any size can take the food safety culture course

via Intertek Alchemy’s Zosi Learning Platform. The course includes two in-depth learning modules on food safety culture and an industry-specific case study on how it positively impacts your food business.

From there, it features a unique, interactive food safety culture gauge that assesses your organization’s maturity level regarding GFSI’s five dimensions of a food safety culture to create a customized action plan and culture tools leveraging social science principles. It includes specific and measurable steps to improve your food safety culture.

Depending on the size of your company and training needs, you can complement the food safety culture training course with consulting services by Alchemy Consulting or Cultivate SA. Online consulting offers an open forum to ask questions and seek guidance regarding specific food safety culture improvement strategies.

Every year, more than 420,000 people die because of foodborne illnesses, making food safety critical of your company’s culture. You can help reduce this number by giving your employees a sense of purpose with a mature food safety culture. Learn more about the Intertek Alchemy Food Safety Culture Course or to talk to a consultant about your company’s training needs.

Ready to learn more? You can start right away by taking Zosi Learning’s Food Safety Culture & Workshop. Or, for more bespoke options, contact Alchemy Consulting to discuss opportunities for your unique food safety program.

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