Food safety culture to drive sustainability and profitability within primary production businesses

Horticulture in Australia plays a vital role in the supply of fresh, safe and nutritious food for consumers both locally and internationally. The aim of the fresh produce sector extends to supporting and sustaining generations of families, regional communities and supporting employment in the downstream supply chain. Fresh produce safety and security incidents create significant disruption, not only to the individual, but to the entire supply chain involved in the incident, with an example being the needles in the strawberries occurrence in 2018. More recently, several product recalls in Australia surrounding potential microbially affected bagged salads have had a negative impact on that sector too.

Fresh produce food safety has experienced increased compliance and technical requirements over the past 20 years. From early implementation of food safety standards to current food safety schemes, the burden of compliance on fresh produce growers is ever increasing. Locally and globally, the concept of food safety culture and its application to fresh produce is not well understood.  

The introduction of food safety culture as an auditable element for all fresh produce-related food safety schemes has resulted in misunderstanding and misconception due to the subjective nature of evidence required for compliance. Coupled with the increasing customer and consumer expectations surrounding the supply of safe food, an opportunity exists for the adoption of a strengthened food safety culture in the fresh produce sector to drive business outcomes and meet or exceed current food safety standards.

Discussions with fresh produce growers highlighted a variety of issues that are plaguing the industry in relation to food safety. The linkage between food safety and food safety culture is becoming more closely aligned as the actions and processes adopted by businesses to manage their food safety systems are becoming increasingly viewed as cultural in nature.

Fresh produce businesses face multiple challenges in adopting a strengthened food safety culture such as seasonality of produce, access to labour (let alone labour suitability for their operations) and the apparent cultural bias of fresh produce being low risk, plus the variability in consistency and accuracy of auditor interpretation of food safety standards. Compliance burden with the introduction of additional customer requirements is creating compliance fatigue among small to medium sized businesses. Larger businesses where relevant skillsets are available or resources can be dedicated to food safety are managing these challenges with systems being designed to achieve safe food production as opposed to small to medium sized operations that generally adopt a default position of food safety compliance.

Given the current spotlight on food safety culture, fresh produce businesses should assess or measure their existing culture to identify gaps in compliance. Assessment tools range from surveys and questionnaires, to focus groups, observation of staff food safety practices and regular documentation review. Resources are available for businesses to utilise and should be manipulated to ensure the correct information is being requested from the workforce.

Once a business has had an opportunity to assess or measure its food safety culture, management can then implement various programs or activities to strengthen any identified gaps. It is critical that owners and/or senior management take leadership in all aspects of driving and promoting food safety and culture within the business. Effective communication that is open and transparent will play a vital role in developing trust and promoting employee interactions for the benefit of the business. Using both top-down and bottom-up communication approaches will foster employee confidence which can lead to the sharing of valuable insights on existing food safety challenges within the business, while contributing to the development of procedures that align with the business’s operations.

Training outcomes should be developed to empower the workforce to take active steps in preventing any unsafe product entering the supply chain. Similarly, technical and quality staff should be provided with untethered access to owners and senior management, when necessary, to ensure food safety compliance and issues or risks arising from operations are dealt with swiftly.

Owners and senior management should take opportunities to develop their skillset in this subject when presented. Talking with neighbours, engaging with industry, peak industry bodies and food safety professionals all have the capacity to improve food safety outcomes by providing practical guidance to problems facing the business or offering a different perspective in solving issues. Businesses should also ensure that the facilities and workplace environment are well designed to allow for safe food to be produced and staff to maintain good food safety practices that are in line with the business’ requirements and expectations.

Improved food safety culture does have the potential to drive productivity and sustainability in fresh produce operations and should, in fact, be simply considered as ‘good for business’. Attitudinal change must be evident in shifting the mindset from primary production to food production. Once this mindset shift can be implemented, the business and senior management can create behavioural changes through leadership, transparent and open communication, employee training and engagement, and job satisfaction. These factors combined will drive food safety culture within a business for productivity enhancement, sustainability, customer compliance and consumer confidence in the fresh produce provided by the business.