Dubai International Food Safety Conference Enhancing Food Safety Culture to Reduce Rates of Foodborne Illness Dr. Ben Chapman Food safety extension specialist

Dubai International Food Safety Conference

Enhancing Food Safety Culture to Reduce Rates of Foodborne Illness

Dr. Ben Chapman

Food safety extension specialist

Dept of 4-H Youth Dev and FCS

North Carolina State University

[email protected]




Food safety culture

• The aggregation of the prevailing, relatively constant, learned, shared attitudes, values and beliefs contributing to the hygiene behaviors used within a particular food handling environment

• Griffith (2010)


Food safety culture

• It is a set of shared attitudes, values and beliefs around food safetyo Production/sourceso Handling/storageo Preparation

• You can have a good food safety culture or a bad one


Impact of actions

Travis Cudney2010

Champion Child

Blind since age 2Complications

from a pathogenic E.

coli infection


Food safety culture

• Maintaining a food safety culture means:o Operators and staff know the risks associated with the products

or meals they produceo Know why managing the risks is importanto Can effectively manage those riskso Demonstrable


Fat Duck norovirus, England, 2009• Run by celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal• Voluntarily closed restaurant in Feb. 2009• Originally said it wasn’t food, but an

airborne virus• UK Health Protection Agency reported in

Sept. 2009, 529 patrons ill with norovirusin January and February 2009

• source was likely contaminated shellfish, including oysters that were served raw


Fat Duck

• Delayed response to the incident• Used inappropriate environmental cleaning

productsStaff working when illo up to 16 of the restaurant’s food handlers were

reportedly working with norovirus symptoms before it was voluntarily closed


Food safety culture

• Yiannas (2009)• Culture not program• It is a choice• Leaders own the program

o Talk about consequenceso Provide consequences



Maple Leaf Foods, Canada 2008• Listeria monocytogenes-contaminated deli meats caused

57 illnesses and 23 deaths• contamination source was commercial meat slicers that

had meat residue trapped deep inside the slicing mechanisms

• textbook risk communication,lousy risk management

• delay in warning the public


Maple Leaf Listeria review

• Focus on food safety was insufficient among senior management at company and government

• Insufficient planning for a potential outbreak;• Those involved lacked a sense of urgency at the outset

of the outbreak• Weatherill (2009) specifically identified the need for

cultures of food safety at food processing companies, calling for ”actions, not words”


Cultural factors influencing food safety performance• Leadership• Food safety management

systems and style• Commitment to food safety• Food safety environment• Risk perception• Communication

Griffith, Livesey & Clayton (2010)


Maple Leaf – try harder

• Provide a chronological accounting of the outbreak

• Warning labels to packages of ready-to-eat meats for persons at high risk for listeriosis

• Testing results?



Retail/foodservice

DistributionProduction Consumers

Marketing food safety culture

Customer feedback


18

We know from the literature and our studies• Time is a factor in the kitchen• Learning in the kitchen is visual• Kitchen environment is based around a team• Generic prescriptive information is lost• Storytelling/current affairs in the environment is

prevalent• Recent story and rumors about local outbreaks can

be a hot topic


Things to concentrate on

• What are the barriers/roadblocks in your firm?• Provide tools/resources• Asking questions from vendors about their practices

o have a system to know what the right answers are.

• Share the food safety values are with all staff• And when you get good at it (or if you already are),

market it


Know the risks

• What products do you serve have been historically linked to foodborne illness outbreaks?

• Know what factors led to the illnesses


Food safety culture

• Relatively easy (or should be) to define poor food safety culture

• More difficult to enact a good one• Griffith; Yiannas; Powell and Chapman

o More will come


External and internal

• Demonstrate to their staff and customers that:o they are aware of current food safety issueso learn from others’ mistakeso food safety is important within the organization


Dr. Ben [email protected] me on twitter @benjaminchapman919 809 3205www.foodsafetyinfosheets.comwww.barfblog.com

Documents

Dubai International Food Safety Conference Enhancing Food Safety Culture to Reduce Rates of Foodborne Illness Dr. Ben Chapman Food safety extension specialist