Food Protection Trends - July/August 2022 - 338

GENERAL INTEREST PAPER
Building Food System Resilience within a Learning Organization
Ir. Cornelis van Elst,1* John T. Hoffman,2
and Carl C. J. Unis3
1Managing Director, QAssurance B.V.,Van Nelle Factory, Postbus 13310, 3004 HH Rotterdam, The Netherlands
2Senior Research Fellow, Food Protection and Defense Institute, University of Minnesota,1365 Gortner Ave., St. Paul, MN 55108, USA
3Systems Engineer, United States Space Force, Albuquerque, NM 87123, USA
SUMMARY
Our global food supply chains are changing very quickly,
driven by increasing demand, growing complexity, longer
and longer input supply chains. Industry consolidation
is outpacing the capability of managers to assimilate and
integrate acquisitions. The reality today is that the perception
of growing corporate wealth within this critical global
infrastructure is a target for both thieves and nation states,
for firms large and small. Most firms in our global supply
system do not adapt well to change. They are slow to mature
against a vast array of risks. They simply cannot get ahead of
the risk environment. These growing complexity challenges,
organizational, technological and regulatory, means they lack
resilience.
The expanding role of technology is very much a food
safety and food system protection issue. We propose
concepts intended to help firms sort the various issues,
place them into a logical self-assessment framework and to
aid them in approaching these challenges from a systems
thinking approach. A firm that embraces the concepts of a
learning organization will be far more agile, resilient and
successful in protecting their consumers and investors. They
will also become a less suitable target for the range of threats
faced today from Economically Motivated Adulteration
(EMA) to ransomware.
OVERVIEW
This article is about the learning capability of a food
organization regarding food safety and operational resilience.
Risks to firms abound today from technology to operational
to regulatory. Yet few firms are prepared to address these
risks before there is a crisis, to stay ahead of the evolving
threats targeting their operations or the shifting regulatory
or legislative environment. For Operational Technology
(OT) risks, such as technology or systems failure, cyber
compromise or direct attack, Economically Motivated
Adulterations (EMA) or disgruntled employees, a range of
compliance requirements exist (except for the cyber risks)
but early detection or functional feedback leading to change
or new mitigation action rarely happens, if at all, on a timely
basis. For food safety management and overall company
resilience it is important to identify emerging risks in time
*
Author for correspondence. Email: ceesvanelst@qassurance.com
338 Food Protection Trends July/August
to mitigate effects and, wherever possible, to anticipate them
ahead of time. When a company demonstrably manages
operational and food safety risks, this has a positive impact
on confidence in the company on the part of customers,
consumers and investors. To achieve such resilience a firm
must transform to a learning organization.
OVERVIEW
The integration of planning and implementation of
operational and food safety measures builds optimum
company performance and brand (4). While it may be easy
to articulate as an objective, most view such a fundamental
shift as a challenge outside their operational capacity. Yet
those firms who are successful, who reduce their risks from
the growing spectrum of risks and compliance challenges, are
the ones that operationally build success into their culture.
These firms are one who have built change recognition,
feedback and adaptation into their culture. They are learning
organizations (13).
How do you set up a learning organization regarding
operational resilience and food safety? First, we must
consider what is involved in managing operational and food
safety risk? When we look at operational and food safety
management from a helicopter view, there are six main actors.
* the food company
* the company's customers and consumers
* the company's suppliers
* the company's operational technology (OT) systems
* the food legislation and the regulatory environment
* the food quality standards
Within the food company there are different operational
departments and roles regarding operational systems
and food safety. Company management determines the
company's performance objectives and allocates investments
in operational and food safety programs. The employees
carryout day to day operational functions. They also interact
directly with the firm's OT systems and engage with the food
safety and quality assurance processes. It is important that
management invests in the right food safety structure and
operational technology systems that enable the company to
perform well: business performance management (BPM).

https://www.foodprotection.org/files/food-protection-trends/jul-aug-22-vanelst.pdf

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