Do You Have Management's Commitment To Food Safety?

By Michael Perz, Food Safety Manager, Ippolito Group

So, you have a GFSI system in place and are being audited. You get your scores (minor non-conformances around 10 to 15). One of the non-conformance items continuing to come up is Management Commitment. What is it? What does it look like? How do you know you have it or need to make it better?

Defined in SQF edition 7.2, the level of commitment, support, and leadership demonstrated by senior company and site management is fundamental to the effective implementation of an SQF food safety management system. Senior management must create the environment within the facility encouraging a proactive attitude amongst staff toward food safety and (at Level 3) quality. It further explains the need for the creation of a policy statement and what the responsibilities of the senior management are. While this is good stuff, it does not tell us how to achieve management’s commitment.

How Do You Know If Management Commitment Is Lacking? How Does It Look?
The basic answer is found in the daily state of the facility. It can take the form of an unkempt production area, such as using manufacturing, processing, and packaging equipment as coat hooks or a corrugate stacking area. It can be heard in off-hand comments that show disrespect — “Go do your little tests” or “I don’t have time for this!” or “I don’t have time” or “You’re being a hypocrite by pointing this stuff out and not fixing it yourself.” It can feel a lot like isolation on the part of QA/QC staff, and it can look like a lack of details (or missing pieces) on paperwork/audits by front-line supervisors, etc.