Meat + Poultry - July 2016 - 46

FOOD SAFETY

What is the most important food safety issue for you and your family today?

Source: IFIC, 2015

Chemicals in food

36%

Foodborne illness
from bacteria

34%

Usually when an employee attends an
educational session, the request is that they
acknowledge they've received the training.
Generally, this is for a recordkeeping purpose.
In some cases,
"A lot of us don't believe that food this record
of receiving
safety is a competitive issue. If
training gives
Americans are concerned about
management or
the safety of the food supply, it's the overseeing
person/
bad for all of us." - FRANK YIANNAS
department
the ability to hold an employee who hasn't
followed the training responsible and proceed
with a disciplinary action.
However, the employees at Walmart are
asked to take another step after receiving
educational training.
"We've leveraged the principle of
commitment in our training and rather than
just asking somebody to sign or click a box
saying that they took the training," Yiannas
says, "at the end of our training we ask our
associates to commit that they're going to
practice the principles they've learned in that
training course."

CULTURE CONNECTION
Historically, food safety has been centered on
facility and equipment design, inspection and is
based on microbiology and epidemiology, but
today's and the future's food safety landscape
continues to move in the direction of people
and their behavior.
"If you were able to quantify how many
times 'food safety culture' and 'food safety
behavior' were used in the 1980s, it would
be very small," Yiannas says. In today's food
safety world that sort of terminology has
become much more common in the industry.

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MEAT+ POULTRY | 07.16 | www.meatpoultry.com

To emphasize the change, Yiannas says he
recently received an email from an executive
with a prominent food brand whose title is
"Manager of Food Safety Culture."
"I think it's this growing realization,"
Yiannas says. "I've been in the profession a
while, and at no point in my career has there
been this greater realization that despite the
fact that we have HACCP plans, micro tests
and we do inspections, we've got to get better
at the human elements of food safety."
Yiannas used existing behavioral studies
as the basis to write the newest book, but
they weren't specifically food safety focused
because there aren't any, but that might
start to change. "What I've seen and heard
since I published the book is universities
and institutions interested in trying to design
studies," he says. Until then, companies still
try to leverage the principles of the book
however they can, using it in creative ways that
apply to their food safety programs, and the
organizations that do, have seen success.
"We've heard from some of the world's
leading brands on how a chapter or more has
resonated, and how they've taken a tip or
principle in the book and applied it to how
they're doing food safety in their company,"
Yiannas says. "My recommendation would be
to read each chapter, pause and brainstorm,
and then challenge yourself on what it means
to your company, your personal situation and
how you might try to apply or leverage it in
your organization or company."

POSITIVE RESPONSE
Yiannas has received a great amount of
positive feedback on the book. Several readers
have told him that they enjoyed this book more
than the first book.
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