• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Tree Top Home
  • Consumer Products
  • Foodservice
  • Ingredients
  • Contract Manufacturing
Tree Top Food Ingredients
Fruit Ingredients
  • About
  • Contact
  • Blogs
  • Fruit Products
      • Fruit Purées
        • Single Strength
          • Apple Blend Purée
          • Apricot Purée
          • Blackberry Purée
          • Blueberry Purée
          • Organic Apple Purée
          • Organic Peach Purée (Cling and Freestone)
          • Organic Pear Purée
          • Peach Purée (Cling and Freestone)
          • Pear Purée
          • Plum Purée
          • Raspberry Purée
          • Strawberry Purée
          • Apple Sauce
      • Fruit Purées
        • Concentrated
          • Apple Purée Concentrate
          • Apricot Purée Concentrate
          • Blackberry Purée Concentrate
          • Blueberry Purée Concentrate
          • Organic Apple Purée Concentrate
          • Organic Apricot Purée Concentrate
          • Peach Blend Purée Concentrate (Cling and Freestone)
          • Pear Purée Concentrate
          • Plum Purée Concentrate
          • Red Raspberry Purée Concentrate
          • Red Tart Cherry Purée Concentrate
          • Strawberry Purée Concentrate
      • Fruit Juice Concentrates
        • Apple Juice Concentrate
        • Blackberry Juice Concentrate
        • Blueberry Juice Concentrate
        • Pear Juice Concentrate
        • Raspberry Juice Concentrate
        • Strawberry Juice Concentrate
      • Dried Fruit
        • Dried Apples – Low Moisture
        • Dried Apples – Intermediate Moisture
        • Dried Apples – Regular Moisture
        • Dried Fruit Powders
        • Dried Pumpkin Flake Powder
      • Fruit Preparations
      • Pet Food Ingredients
      • Specialty Markets
        • Hard Ciders and Alcohol
        • Reduced Sugars
      • Northwest Naturals
  • Resources
      • Specification Sheets
        • Dried Fruit
        • Fruit Purees
        • Apple Sauce
        • Fruit Juice Concentrates
        • Frozen Fruit
        • Fruit Preparations
      • Regulatory Documents
        • Quality Compliance Summary
        • Kosher Certificates
        • Organic Certificates
        • Storage & Shelf Life
        • Other Documents
        • New Customer Packet
      • Product Brochures
        • About Tree Top/Overview
        • Fruit Ingredient Full Product Catalogs
        • Dried Fruit
        • Strawberry Products-Frozen
        • Dairy
        • Hard Ciders
        • Pet Food
        • Northwest Naturals
        • Contract Manufacturing
        • Fruit Serving Calculations
        • Fruit Acid Cards
        • Seasonal Fruit Harvest Chart
      • Videos
      • Webinars
      • White Papers
      • Calculators
      • Market Trends News
      • Contract Manufacturing
  • Applications
      • Biscuits – Scones
      • Breads
      • Cakes
      • Cookies
      • Drinks
      • Entrees
      • Frozen Novelties
      • Gluten Free
      • Low Sugar – No Sugar
      • Muffins
      • Other Desserts
      • Pet Food
      • Pies
      • Plant Based
      • Salads
      • Sauces
      • Sides
      • Smoothies
      • Snack Bars
      • Snacks
      • Soups
      • Vegetable
  • Crop Info
        • Crop Report Blog

        • General Crop Info

        • Meet our Growers & Field Reps

        • Crop Information
        • Apples
        • Blackberries
        • Cherries
        • Grapes
        • Peaches
        • Pears
        • Raspberries
        • Strawberries
  • Samples
  • Fruit Products
    • Fruit Purées
    • Fruit Juice Concentrates
    • Dried Fruit
    • Fruit Preparations
    • Pet Food Ingredients
    • Specialty Markets
      • Hard Ciders & Alcohol
      • Reduced Sugars
    • Northwest Naturals
  • Resources
    • Specification Sheets
    • Regulatory Documents
    • Product Brochures
    • Videos
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Calculators
    • Market Trends News
    • Contract Manufacturing
  • Crop Info
    • Crop Report Blog
    • General Crop Info
    • Meet Our Growers & Field Reps
  • Blogs
    • Crop Report Blog
    • R&D Blog
    • Market Insights Blog
    • Pet Scoop Blog
    • Quality Food & Safety Insights
  • Sample Request
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Applications
  • Tree Top Sites
    • Tree Top Home
    • Consumer Products
    • Foodservice
    • Ingredients
    • Contract Manufacturing

Tree Top Fruit Ingredients

More Fruit, More Forms

Hide Search

Food Safety – A Matter of Culture: Part 2 

Kristine McDonald · Nov 1, 2021

How to successfully maintain a ‘food safety culture’

In part one of this blog, we discussed ways in which a food safety culture could be cultivated as part of the Global Food Safety Initiatives (GSFI) requirements. Creating and maintaining a ‘food safety culture’ is not only a requirement, but an essential initiative in providing safe and quality food products.

Once the culture of a manufacturing facility expects and rewards food safe behaviors with a ‘top down’ approach, this integrity must be maintained and measured. With the commitment of top management and the trickle-down effect of a food safety culture, an organization can focus on training employees not only the importance of food safety, but the reasons why it is important.  Knowledge is key when instilling a commitment to food safety.

The mutual benefits of good training and knowledge

Educating your workforce and top management in the steps in creating safe, quality food is essential to manufacturing. To further this understanding:

  • Every employee needs to understand ‘why’ processes are done – this assists them in taking personal responsibility of the safe food process.

To reference the hand-washing example in the previous post, you can train your employees to properly wash their hands when working in a food handling area. However, if you go one step further and teach employees ‘why’ proper hand-washing techniques are done – to significantly reduce the risk of microbial contamination of a product that could possibly make consumers ill – you empower them to be a partner in your food safety culture.

Graphic of Food Safety Culture Topics

Advertising the culture of food safety

As creators of the food safety initiatives in the manufacturing facility, we may think we’re good at promoting our processes and measures for food safety, however, many times we don’t do enough to ensure all employees get the information.

Creating a culture that encourages employees to practice food safety integrity requires employees to first understand it’s okay to come forward with their concerns because there won’t be any negative ramifications for them. Be sure to:

  • Publicly acknowledge employees who bring food safety issues to management.
  • Reward them, whether the issue was large or small.
  • And above all, correct the issues when they are identified to management.

This shows your employees their concerns and observations are important to the overall food safety of the products you manufacture.

Make it a priority to discuss your ‘food safety culture’ regularly with employees.

  • Use terminology that helps employees understand its importance.
  • Call out the value of food safety any chance you get, so everyone understands it’s not a superficial matter.
  • Reinforce that food safety is a company value shared throughout your organization from the CEO to the line workers.

Measuring a ‘food safety culture’

One of the biggest challenges to the ‘food safety culture’ initiative is: “How do you measure a culture?” This question is raised frequently when we get audited by our customers, regulatory bodies, and certifying bodies. Here are some of the ways we illustrate our food safety culture at Tree Top:

  • Having manufacturing employees discuss food safety as a routine part of the language used with auditors.
  • Having a clear line of communication from employees to management, so that any possible food safety issues can be identified.
  • Documenting these conversations and using them as proof that food safety conversations and improvements are being raised and addressed.
  • Ensuring policies and procedures reflect the food safety culture.
  • Addressing food safety in both the quality documents and manufacturing documents, as well.
  • Food safety is not just a quality initiative – it’s a manufacturing initiative.

ALWAYS KEEP IN MIND: Quality personnel only verify the quality and safety of a food. Manufacturing is where quality and food safety are initiated.

Walk the walk

I would like to reiterate from last month’s post how important it is that everyone exhibits a commitment to food safety. Managers must be as much or even more engaged in their company’s food safety values than line workers are. People learn best what is modeled for them. We must continue to provide the education, training, and modeling to ensure our food safety culture is cultivated, measured, and maintained.

If you have examples of how your company is practicing a food safety culture, I would love the hear about them. Please email ideas, questions, or comment to kristine.mcdonald@treetop.com

Blog Categories

Sign Up For Our Latest News

Receive the latest news and research right in your inbox!

Blog Home

Categories

  • Apples
  • Apricots
  • Blackberries
  • Blueberries
  • Cherries
  • Concord Grapes
  • Crop Report Blog
  • Market Insights Blog
  • Nectarines
  • Peaches
  • Pears
  • Pet Scoop Blog
  • Plums
  • Quality Food and Safety Insights
  • Raspberries
  • Research and Development Blog
  • Strawberries
  • Uncategorized
  • Weather Conditions
  • Ingredients Products
  • Fruit Purées
  • Apple Sauce
  • Fruit Juice Concentrates
  • Dried Fruit
  • Specialty Markets
  • Fruit Preparations
  • Resources
  • Request Samples
  • Spec Sheets
  • Regulatory Documents
  • Crop Information
  • Harvest Chart
  • Applications
  • Sales Materials
  • Videos
  • Webinars
  • White Papers
  • Market Trends
  • About Us
  • Our Story
  • Facilities
  • Citizenship/Sustainability
  • Contract Manufacturing
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Blogs
  • Crop Update
  • Research and Development
  • Market Insights
  • Pet Scoop
  • Quality Food and Safety Insights
Northwest Naturals
Tree Top Ingredients Newsletter

Sign up to receive our monthly blog full of industry news and insights designed to keep you informed – delivered to your inbox.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.