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Health and safety in food & agriculture

Ensuring the health and safety of all workers and consumers in agricultural production and along food supply chains is critical to building a safe and resilient food sector. Our occupational health and safety standards support agri-food businesses of all sizes manage and comply with health and safety regulations. By working to standardized best practices, the food production and agriculture sector can ensure policy coherence and deliver a safe food supply globally.

Creating a safe global food environment for all

Learn how standards support the provision of health and safety best practices for both employees and consumers throughout the food production chain

The role of food standards in creating a food safety culture
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The role of food standards in creating a food safety culture

Historically, delivering on the consumer expectation of safe food products has been managed using the concept of understanding and assessing food safety risk; the identification of critical points of control, and the careful management of the production process. To support this, key performance indicators that can be captured, recorded, trended, and reported to give an overview of performance are identified. Overlaying an audit process and a product sampling plan provides the framework of a process that attempts to manage defect levels. When issues occur, robust root cause analysis and corrective actions are the usual reactions to a failure in the process. This concept can be very successful if it’s rooted in an experienced and very well considered understanding of all the food safety risks embedded in the supply chain. How successfully depends on the capability to manage and respond to variation, so that consistent and predictable outcomes can be established and then maintained. Cumulatively, encouraging the right behaviours and actions within a food organization has become known as a culture of food safety. While the concept isn’t new, the path to a culture of food safety hasn’t always been clear. What many organizations overlook as they work toward meeting the food safety culture-related requirements in standards is that the key aspects that impact culture (values, leadership, motivation) play an important part in encouraging and delivering on consumer expectations. Embedding food safety at the heart of your organization How a business operates is heavily influenced by its value set. If there aren’t clear values, then values can differ across departments driving misalignment and likely internal conflict. If an organization’s values aren’t aligned and implemented across all functions, a singular culture—food safety or otherwise—isn’t possible. The value set of a business is also influenced by what level of risk it’s willing to take in order to deliver its overall objectives. For food safety risk mitigation to be a priority it has to be established as a priority by the overall business and set within the overall business objectives. When food safety risk is embedded in the individual objectives of each function, it becomes an operating parameter for every function. This creates an environment where there is never any doubt that food safety risk is defined and will never be compromised; regardless of context, circumstances, and cost. In contrast, in organizations with functionally driven agendas, the food safety risk is not a determining factor in the decision-making or performance indicators of every function. In a functionally driven organization, a team like procurement will determine its own individual functional objectives, which may be separate and distinct from the overall business objectives. The function of procurement is to ensure the timely delivery of materials and services, and in many organizations, it may also be challenged to drive a cost-based agenda. So, if a procurement team is not bound by an overall business value to manage food safety risk, their functional strategy doesn’t have to be influenced by the risks or values of other functions; and they don’t share or have to accept responsibility for the outcomes of its functional agenda in relation to food safety. Without a clear set of business values ingrained into all functional areas, functional agendas will be formed and create internal conflict and subcultures. For a food safety culture to be truly embedded, the values of an organization must be more than marketing content or embellished plaques in reception. To read more on the topic of supply chain management and risk in the food industry, click here. Key standards that create a food safety culture At BSI, we believe that the world deserves safe, sustainable, and socially responsible food. To experience real, long-term benefits, our clients need to ensure ongoing compliance to regulations, market needs, or standards so that it becomes an embedded habit. Our standards help facilitate this process. We offer a broad range of risk management and business resilience standards to help organizations in the food and retail supply chain mitigate risk, protect their brands and build resilient supply chains. PAS 320:2023 Developing and sustaining a mature food safety culture. Guide gives guidance on recognizing and maintaining a positive culture of food safety in any food organization, regardless of its size or focus. It includes guidance on using a food safety culture maturity model against which organizations can assess their level of maturity to help foster cultural change that impacts on all functions and levels in a food organization. It covers the defined pre-requisites and taxonomy of organizational culture, with a food safety culture focus. The BS EN ISO 22000 series deals directly with food safety in the supply chain. These standards provide a comprehensive framework to identify, evaluate, and control food safety hazards throughout the food supply chain. They helps organizations establish robust food safety management systems, ensuring the delivery of safe and quality food products to consumers. Create a culture of food safety within your organization by adding these standards to your collection today. Discover BSI Knowledge There is no doubt that using standards can ensure the safety of your food products, building crucial trust between you and your consumers. With a BSI Knowledge subscription, food safety is at your fingertips with instant access to over 2,000 best practice documents related to the food and beverage industry. Request to learn more.Read more
How to manage allergen challenges in the global food industry
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How to manage allergen challenges in the global food industry

Do you expect to find cow’s milk in a coconut drink? Fish in chicken pesto pasta? Gluten in a product clearly labelled as ‘gluten-free'? Peanuts in wheat products? Unexpected or undeclared allergens and the misrepresentation of food continue to make news headlines and are the leading cause of food recalls globally. While the impact on brand reputation can be financially damaging, the impact on consumers sensitive to allergen contamination can be devastating. Food industry awareness of allergens and food misrepresentation has dramatically increased over the past decade, so why do we continue to have ongoing challenges managing them? What are the current industry challenges Undeclared allergens in manufactured foods or raw materials can potentially have global impacts due to high volumes and wide distribution networks. Food services face the same risks but will typically have a more localized impact. The current challenges stem from our increasingly complex food supply chains and changing eating habits. This is coupled with a reliance on accurate labelling to communicate allergen risk to susceptible people or communities. Allergen contamination can occur at any stage of the food supply chain from primary production, transport, storage, and manufacturing through to food service. The addition or substitution of cheaper adulterants for economic gain is lucrative and therefore not uncommon. Just on its own food fraud can damage customers and consumer confidence in your products and brand, but when the substitution involves an allergenic substance it can also have deadly consequences. To read more about food fraud and supply chain risk, click here. Primary production challenges arise from competitive global market pressures to produce high-quality products at the lowest possible price. Farmers using rotational cropping and the widespread sharing of harvesting, storage, and transport equipment between crops often inadvertently contribute to cross-contamination between cereals that contain gluten and those that don’t. Crustacea and prawns have sulphite added postharvest to preserve their fresh appearance. Given the variables within the process, validation is often difficult and there is the possibility that concentrations of sulphites may exceed the regulatory or specified acceptable limits. Food manufacturing facilities typically handle multiple allergens that need to be managed from receival, right through to storage, processing, packing, labelling, and distribution. Direct allergen contamination can be caused by: Poor management of systems, lack of process controls, and ineffective implementation in production areas that require physical or time segregation between allergens and non-allergens. Poor equipment design and inadequate cleaning procedures may allow production residues to remain and contaminate subsequent production runs. Introduction of new allergens through product development trials and non-production areas such as staff canteens and vending machines. Learnings in allergen management All GFSI (Global Food Safety Initiative) and retailer food safety standards have high-level expectations and prescriptive requirements for allergens. Fundamentals for effective allergen management include: Knowing your supplier(s) and communicating regularly on the source(s) of raw materials so that inherent allergen risks are understood. If a raw material is intended for use in a product that makes a ‘free from’ claim, this needs to be known by the supplier to ensure changes to the allergen status are prioritized and communicated. Understanding the unique risks and allergen status of all raw materials. While this information should be detailed in a product specification, its accuracy and reliability will depend on the technical knowledge and competence of the author. Often product specifications are completed remotely without a site assessment being undertaken to identify actual allergen risks. Applying a rigorous risk assessment to identify the potential for allergen contamination at each step in the manufacturing process. The flow of allergenic material, from receipt through to finished product despatch, needs to be mapped to identify specific points of potential contamination. Implementing, monitoring, and reviewing the ongoing effectiveness and sustainability of controls such as segregation of allergenic products or production scheduling to minimize the frequency of changeovers between allergen and non-allergen-containing products. Mitigating the allergen risk with food safety standards Building and retaining collective knowledge remains challenging as communicating changes to the allergen status of raw materials and finished products throughout the food supply chain is onerous and requires ongoing monitoring, reporting, and feedback. Sustained focus and rigor in allergen management at all stages of the food supply chain will reduce the incidence of unexpected allergens. Increasing the maturity of your food safety culture can help embed and evolve allergen-related safety in your organization. Implementing standards that actively manage the challenges posed by allergens will be the key to future success: BS EN ISO 22000 Food safety management systems covers how any organization in the food chain can implement and operate a food safety management system that produces food that’s safe for consumers to eat. It provides clear guidance and recommendations that apply to the whole food chain, from primary production to retail, hence contributing to reducing food hazards. BS EN 15842 Detection of food allergens specifies general guidelines for the requirements and use of reference materials for the determination of allergenic commodities in food products. PAS 96 Guide to protecting and defending food and drink from deliberate attack. The purpose of PAS 96 is to improve the resilience of all parts of production and supply chain against attack. As your consumers' allergy needs continually evolve, having the flexibility and visibility to access the latest industry best practices is crucial for ensuring their safety. A BSI Knowledge subscription puts the control in your hands, with traceability to monitor and demonstrate your business's access to standards, and self-serve functionality that enables you to manage your subscriptions, standards, users, and content quickly and simply. Request to learn more. Ensure your organization is managing allergen risk effectively by adding these standards to your collection today.

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