How Is Food Safety Education Transforming To Ease Compliance?
By Sam Lewis
Food safety is top of mind for every food manufacturer or processor. But, are companies keeping up with how food safety and its education are evolving? Here, Brian Sterling, President and CEO of Safe Food Canada, answers my questions about the evolution of food safety education and what companies can do to build and sustain a qualified workforce in food manufacturing facilities. Sterling will be speaking at the upcoming 12th Annual North American Summit on Food Safety held April 20-21, 2016 in Toronto, ON.
Food Online: How do Safe Food Canada’s (SFC) goals align with GFSI benchmarks?
Sterling: As we know, the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) is a business initiative for the continuous improvement of food safety management systems to ensure confidence in the delivery of safe food to consumers worldwide. SFC is dedicated to modernizing the way people — particularly food professionals in industry and government — learn about food safety. We are just getting started, so there is no hard alignment between our goals and GFSI. However, we want to bring alignment with GFSI into our work and deliverables. One specific example might be to incorporate SFC accredited courses as part of a company’s food safety management system. A link between SFC and GFSI makes sense because we do not want to add to the audit burden already placed on food companies; yet, we also need to create a harmonized, reliable, and comprehensive pan-Canadian learning process for food safety.
Food Online: Is there a large gap between everyday practices in the food industry and what legislation and regulations, such as the Safe Food For Canadians Act and FSMA, are expecting from the industry? How can food manufacturers begin to bridge that gap?
Sterling: One of the issues facing the industry and government (all levels) is that there is no common way to address that question. Certainly, Canadian food companies and regulators have invested substantial resources to create one of the most trusted food systems in the world. Are there gaps? One must say, “Yes,” but, where are they? SFC’s work is to help identify the gaps between what currently exists and what must be in place from an education and training perspective in order that the industry and government are on the same page regarding food safety.
Singly, these two key stakeholder groups are doing what they believe is necessary. The issue right now is that they are often educated and trained separately, and speak a very different “language” when it comes to safe food. So, they often address the gaps in ways that are unaligned. We frequently hear this complaint from businesses and regulators. SFC was created to help bridge the gap and build harmony through competency-based learning for both industry and government.
Food Online: How much money is being spent by food manufacturers to train their staff regarding safety requirements/regulations? Is this amount giving an adequate ROI?
Sterling: A couple of months ago, SFC released the results of an exploratory study of spending by the Canadian food industry on food safety. All food companies will tell you that food safety is a top priority for their firm and their people. However, we found that fully half the companies we interviewed could not tell us how much they spent on food safety training. And these were not just small companies. SFC wants to look further into this issue by establishing a benchmark of what North American food companies typically spend in this area. Because, how can we say what is the best use of training dollars if companies do not know what they are spending? So, one thing that food manufacturers could do is start understanding the return on the investment they are getting from training their people on food safety, and how can they improve it.
Food Online: How can ROI and the effectiveness of training initiatives be measured?
Sterling: A good starting point is to define what you are spending on food safety training. Then ask, “How effective is that training; do you even measure the change in performance of your people after they receive training?” If not, it is hard to put a measure on the value you are getting from your training dollars. The other — admittedly self-serving — suggestion is to help SFC understand the industry best practices around spending on food safety and food protection.
For more information about Brian Sterling Safe Food Canada’s efforts, be sure to attend the 12th Annual North American Summit on Food Safety, where Brian Sterling will be sharing insights on how your company can build and sustain a qualified workforce in your facility to meet emerging safety demands. The North American Summit on Food Safety is the only event in Canada bringing together Food Safety & Quality Assurance professionals from across Canada and the U.S. to cohesively tackle major safety and quality issues. This year’s summit takes place April 20-21, 2016 at the Old Mill Inn, Toronto, ON. For more information, click here.