The Why Behind the What | Episode 60

In episode 60 of Don't Eat POOP! A Food Safety Podcast , Matt Regusci and I are talking about food safety culture falling apart and when and where the next major food safety outbreak will be. Because it will happen, there’s no doubt about it.

We address the troubling fact that just because you think you’re company has a good food safety culture that doesn’t mean that’s true. We also point out how important it is to explain the why behind things, to be on the floor checking that things are as they should be, and to lead by example.

Tune in for this very important conversation that needs to be had about food safety culture.

In this episode:

• [06:17] Food safety culture, the Food Safety Summit, and ruffling feathers
• [08:15] Dr. Darin Detwiler’s recent article “Anticipating the inevitable”
• [11:48] Companies’ (skewed) perceptions of their own food safety culture
• [15:51] The importance of stepping into where the processes and procedures are applied, walking through them, and leading by example
• [19:40] Even companies that are amazing at training seem to fail to teach the most important thing?
• [21:40] The things we need to talk about, even if people don’t want to hear
• [24:23] Where the next major food safety crisis will come from
• [25:50] The importance of checking that the right things are actually getting done
• [28:15] Matt’s prediction for food safety culture in the next 2 decades
• [29:12] Good auditors, bad auditors, and the realities of being one
• [32:07] Someone found a present in their popsicle

The Problem

Recently, Dr. Darin Detwiler released an article laying out the major food safety crises and asking where’s the next one and when is it going to hit. Note that it’s not an if, it’s a where and when.

We agree. That’s going to happen because we don't have enough food safety culture across the supply chain and across all these food industries.?

One thing we have for sure is checklists. There's a lot of checklists. There's a lot of people pencil-whipping stuff which is, “I have this log I have to fill out, so I'm going to fill it out and just fake it”.

The problem here is that we don't teach the why behind the what.

Here are two examples to better illustrate the issue:

1. Time-Temperature Logs

During the time I was doing corporate training for a company that I considered to be amazing in their commitment to training their employees, I decided to talk to somebody who worked at the store level.

I found out that they had no idea why they were taking the temperatures or that fudging the temperatures of the product is wrong. Therefore, they were commonly fudging the temperatures on the time and temp logs. For them, as long as they did their job of filling it out, all was good, but that’s not the case.

If the temperature wasn't right after 4 hours when they took the temperature, they would shut the lid on the warmer and wait 30-45 minutes. So, when we were at almost 5 hours and the temperature had come up did they write it down.?

Sadly, they had no idea that there was a possibility that they could kill ?? somebody. They just knew that they needed to have the right temperature in the time-temperature log.

That’s because the why was never explained. All they knew is it was something that they had to do.

1. Hand Washing

Not long ago I was at a restaurant and ran into an issue.? I went to the restroom and when I went to wash my hands with all this foamy soap all over them there was no water, none.?

So, with my extra soapy hands, I had to maneuver out of the restroom and into another one which thankfully had water and I managed to finally rinse my hands.

When I was done with these frustrating and unexpected steps to washing my hands, I went up to the counter and told the girl working there that the water wasn’t working in the restroom I tried to use and that no one could wash their hands in there.

I got a simple “Hmm” response, no “I’m sorry” or “I’ll take care of that”. My guess is she thought because there was a hand sanitizer dispenser outside the restroom, then that wasn’t an issue.

What bothers me the most is that this restaurant is part of a national brand that I know very well and that speaks food safety culture just incessantly.?

This clearly shows that no matter how much a company talks about having a good food safety culture and promoting it, it’s at the store level, at the team member level that we truly know if that is true.

A Good Food Safety Culture

That’s all good and well, but what exactly is a good food safety culture?

A good food safety culture sets policies and procedures and they are followed from the top level to the team member level. They explain the whys of why this stuff is important, instead of just saying this is how we have to do it.

The Solution

It’s important to go beyond the checklists because there are processes and practices in place (like the time-temp log) that are not being followed because there is no culture of really understanding and valuing the why behind it.

It's all a part of food safety culture and I think that it's important that we conduct ongoing training, we explain the whys. That we don’t be afraid to look at new technology to help us update the checklist that we have, to look at new products that are on the market, and to stop staying with the status quo because we think that it's always worked.?

There’s another thing that’s just as important and that is for the C-suite and upper management to step down to the ground level to actually make sure that what you think is happening is actually happening.

An impactful way to do that is for upper management to:

• get down on the ground level and walk through the policies and procedures with team members who are actually supposed to be applying them
• test out the policies and procedures and make sure they are practical and actually work in their context
• see where things diverge and how the way the team members are applying them differs from what’s in place
• lead by example and show how everyone in the company really is committed to food safety
• Never just assume your company has a good food safety culture?

This doesn’t mean that the C-suite shouldn’t continue to talk about food safety culture because that’s where it all starts, it only means that they should make sure their company is walking the walk when they do.

The Stakes

When we look at the 8 biggest food safety crises of the last 3 decades , it’s clear that not all of these companies were anti-food safety or just felt like it was a terrible waste of time and money.

In fact, I believe that if you asked them before the outbreak if they thought they were doing a good job when it comes to food safety, some of these companies would have told you to go fly a kite, but most would’ve said they were doing a good job.

Well, history has proved that both of them were actually failing when it comes to their food safety culture.

That raises the question: what about your company? Are you 100% sure that will not be you in the future with a major food safety outbreak?

If you’re not, then make sure to heed my advice for the previous section, because if you’re not careful the next big outbreak may just be brewing on your company floor.

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