Preventive Measures for Food Industry Professionals

Building trust through safe food

Intro

The pandemic has brought to the fore the need to implement food safety at all levels right from farm to fork

"The goal of the food safety professional should be to create a food safety culture, not a food safety program." - Frank Yiannas

Food safety has always been a thrust area and more so now in the times of the pandemic. Not adhering to safety protocols not only lead to loss of life or harm to the body but also adversely affect profits, taint brands and lower the trust threshold of consumers.

Foodism brings to you some pointers to ensure food safety and business continuity 

Focus on the risk element

Professionals in the food safety industry are well aware that prior to implementing controls it is critical to gain an understanding of the risk element. Learning the origin of the contamination enables one to take wise and well-informed decisions with regards to exactly where one needs to invest one’s resources to cap the risk.

When it comes to COVID-19, matters are pretty clear as the only likely source of the virus spread is human beings so one needs to keep out a hawk’s eye for:

• Unwell guests who may be potential carriers of the virus
• Employees who come from containment or red zones especially if they are sick
• Anyone be it guests, vendors or staff who are sneezing and coughing and inadvertently spreading the virus with their hands

Stress on what is already in place

Basically all food industries have certain safety norms perennially in place. Now is the time to ascertain that your customers are made aware of the same i.e. even prior to the pandemic outbreak your industry laid a lot of thrust on ensuring that the food products rolled out were 100 per cent safe and hygienic.

Precautionary steps to take ASAP

• Security measures to curtail unauthorized footfalls and ascertain that authorized guests, vendors and team members enter the premise only through the approved entry points
• Abiding by the general hygiene rules – frequent hand washing; donning clean clothing and protective clothing such as smocks, hairnet, masks, gloves et al
• Deploying multiple hand washing stations to facilitate hand hygiene for employees 
• Conducting training on proper hand washing techniques for the team
• Ensuring that staff, vendors and guests - with cold, cough and fever - are not allowed entry
• Daily disinfecting of common areas and equipment 
• Introducing controls for exposed product areas like – limiting access; setting apart dedicated employees for specific roles; restricting foot traffic between areas; et al

Suggested best practices

Each organization is unique and may bring on-board their own strategy to ensure food safety. Foodism shares some general ideas worth implementing in light of this new, emerging risk.

Ensuring that –

• Anyone exposed to a COVID-19 positive patient does not enter the premise for the mandate 14 days
• Staff or vendors suffering from cough, body aches, fever, or respiratory issues, stay at home; and resume duties only post a fitness certificate from a GP
• Non-essential travel stands cancelled 
• Good hygiene practices are in place
• Regular awareness sessions are held for the team with regards to the risk of the coronavirus; how it spreads; what organs it can harm; who is at more risk (the children, the elderly and the immuno-compromised); what herbal decoctions and vitamin supplements can boost immunity levels et al
• Vendors and staff wear masks to control the spread of the virus through sneezing and coughing 
• Employees wash their hands frequently by making available additional hand sanitizer stations 
• Staff directly handling food wears disposable gloves 
• Common areas like staff recreation zones, canteens, elevators, staircases et al are frequently cleaned and disinfected
• Food that is cooked and served is sustained at a temperature of 75 degree centigrade
• Raw material suppliers implement and adhere to food safety thereby ascertaining that it doesn't become a problem for you in your marketplace
• The staff follows best practices with regards to personal hygiene specifically around - eating, chewing, drinking and smoking. Perhaps introducing measures - like a dedicated lunch space or space for breaks; controlling the areas where visitors can enter et al – may have a positive impact not only on food safety and hygiene but also on security 
• That the entire establishment is squeaky clean not only the product manufacturing area but also lunch rooms, toilet areas, locker rooms etc. Moreover the cleaning process should be in line with the Standard Operating Procedures

On the floor precautionary measures

• Conducting thermal screening of employees at the entry
• Adhering to social distancing norms to avoid any personal contact during all processes 
• Visually screening all workers at the beginning of each shift for any signs of illness
• Restricting the number of employees taking breaks at one time
• Placing a blanket ban on visitors 
• Stricter rules for drivers delivering loads to the site i.e. ensuring that they follow all norms of hand hygiene, mask and social distancing; and if otherwise then ascertaining that they don’t step out of the vehicle

Building trust

In case customers are requesting for any information about the safety measures being followed by you then while responding pay attention to the tone of your verbal or written language. Always keep in mind that the objective here is to foster trust and confidence in your customers and this can only be done by making them understand that you are taking the situation seriously and that you’re proactive in ensuring that the products reaching their table are safe to the maximum possible extent.

Agreed that adhering to food safety guidelines in the times of the pandemic may entail investment of a lot of resources on the part of the management – but the benefits will far outweigh the inputs. Besides strengthening livelihoods of your employees at a time when economies across the world are badly-hit; this initiative would also set the supply chain rolling alongside elevating the trust quotient of your customers leading to brand loyalty.