Managers of the food industry, the companies building the processing and packaging equipment, the politician who debates the regulatory framework all have generally limited knowledge of the subject, but need to know the definition of hygiene and understand enough to be aware of what the risks are and what is needed to prevent them.
In the food industry management has taken the steps to guarantee food safety, which can be summarised as follows:
Experience has shown that the above measures are not always sufficient to ensure the safety and quality of foods. This is demonstrated by the fact that too many – in principle preventable – food safety incidents continue to occur, and many ISO certified factories still have hygiene problems. The result has been a loss of confidence on the consumers’ part. Over and above the measures mentioned above, a number of other conditions need to be met, and this paper discusses these other requirements, which can contribute to the successful food hygiene programmes within industry. It should nevertheless be emphasised that the food industry and the public sector supervising the agro-business have to take initiative so that these conditions are met and the above control methods are adequately in place. An active collaboration of these two sectors is essential for restoring the confidence of the consumer in food supply.
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Awareness
The latest food safety incidents have created the necessary awareness of management and demonstrated how the lack of hygiene can lead to food safety incidents. Everyone in the food industry, from the boardroom to the shop floor and the contracted auxiliary staff, have to be aware that any shortcomings in hygiene may jeopardise the health of consumers. In addition, the company’s name and brands involved in such incidents are at stake; if there is a black sheep, the entire industry producing the same product is incriminated.
The financial impact of food safety incidents is a threat, which each company must take seriously.
What does awareness mean? Quality today has to be in the centre of the business. Quality and in particular safety can no longer be taken for granted. It is everyone’s concern. Management has to take the lead and demonstrate the importance it gives to food safety through communication to all levels in the
organisation, and through its active support.
Creating awareness is not enough. Everyone working in the food industry must know exactly how and where his or her activities could cause a food safety risk. This is very much an educational issue; a matter of each individual’s responsibility. That leads us right into the next chapter.
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By GlobalDataPeople
Let us concentrate on three positions: The quality manager, the hygienist and the operator involved in food processing.
THE QUALITY MANAGER
Management has to choose its quality manager carefully. He must be credible, so that the quality strategy he proposes is endorsed and actively supported. He must know the company’s objectives perfectly well and integrate the quality strategy into it.
To achieve this successfully, he preferably has a wide operational experience in many of the company’s activities. By operational experience, I mean
having been in charge of production operations and having made day-to-day decisions in which quality considerations played a role along with productivity
and cost considerations.
He certainly needs the necessary scientific background to understand hygiene requirements and their effects on food safety. He must also know how to manage processes and be familiar with the elements of Total Quality Management as a means to reach Business Excellence.
But above all, he has to be business-oriented and not system-oriented. He has to focus on actual benefits for the consumer in the area of food safety and acceptance of the product.
The quality manager must be able to mobilise the industry to make a conscious effort to improve food quality and safety. This requires a multidisciplinary approach. The quality manager needs, therefore, the necessary leadership and communication skills.
Taking into account the long and short term needs, the quality manager must be able to put in place the quality and food safety plan, to introduce it and see to it that measurable results are attained.
In short, he must be able to take food safety out of pure science into the boardroom.
THE HYGIENIST
The importance of this function is still largely underestimated. The hygienist has to have a broad field of knowledge and experience. Instead of making a job description, just look at some of the topics discussed at the last Food Hygiene Europe event in June 2000 in Amsterdam:The hygienist should be involved in the everyday operation of the factory and see to it that food quality 
and safety plans are adequately implemented and operating. He should be able to appreciate the importance of some details as certain details can make a difference in the safety and quality of the final product.
The hygienist should have a minimum knowledge in any one of the areas above. In addition to that, he needs communication and training skills.
After finishing his or her studies, the future hygienist needs at least five years to be able to add value in all of the above areas. This means that the position and the career possibilities of the hygienist must be attractive. Otherwise, he or she may not invest all of the time and effort necessary to become truly qualified. Specific curriculums eventually using learning at distant techniques should be used to complement growing practical experience with theoretical studies.
A final word on this position: The hygienist must interact with the engineers and be involved in the selection of processing machinery, design modifications and precautions to be taken during installation.
THE OPERATOR IN THE PLANT
People make quality. People are our most important assets. Which company has not developed policies like this? If the right person is at the right place and
does the right things, noticeable progress will be made.
Continuous improvement
Many solutions have been proposed to create quality awareness at the shop floor and sustain that awareness over time. The most successful are those involving the teams of people working together in continuous improvement activities.
HACCP teams can play a role, if they review studies continuously and question the consequences of each change for product safety.
Results from research in food quality and safety have to be used together with lessons from incidents occurring to improve HACCP plans. Learning from experience, results from HACCP verification, auditing and conclusions drawn from these data have to be used to improve food quality and safety plans.
The 5S method
A successful method of continuous improvement, in particular for the food industry and hygiene aspect, is the Japanese 5S method.(ii) For the reader not familiar
with it, let us summarise it:
5S stands for 5 terms having to do with introduction and maintenance of a clean (in the food industry, hygienic) environment. They have to be introduced one by one in the following order:
- Seiri (Straighten up) = Organisation Distinguish between the necessary and the unnecessary; elimination of waste These include setting of the standard and fulfilling legal requirements
- Seiton (put in order) = neatness Create a neat, efficient factory layout (for both quality and safety)
- Seiso (clean-up) = cleaning. Adapt cleaning to needs. Understand that cleaning includes inspection and monitoring of the effectiveness of cleaning. This is obviously the key part from a hygiene point of view. It is also interesting to see that cleaning is only the third part. The first two parts deal with creating the pre-conditions for effective cleaning.
- Seiketsu (Personal cleanliness) = Make it a good habit, which will become the standard. Starting with yourself, keep things organised, neat and clean. Introduce KPIs (key performance indicators) to monitor the progress.
- Shitsuke (discipline) = Discipline
Do the right things as a matter of progress; continuously improve the standard as a result of the feedback from daily routine work.
The following example shows how the 5S method has been successfully introduced in one of our factories and progress sustained over many years.
The 5S method can be easily combined with the requirements of good manufacturing practices (GMP) and hygiene requirements. The points in the graph are a sum of about 50 different GMP items checked in a 6-month interval by the factory management team.
Quality Policy and System
There is no doubt that a quality system, including the standards to be reached and the process to be followed, is needed. Management has to make sure that these systems are designed and implemented to support the operation and respond to the reality of the plants and production. The periodical review and if necessary, change of these plans, is necessary to reflect changes taking place in the operation of the plants, the industry in general and the outside world.
We must, however, always keep in mind that systems cannot replace attitude, discipline and professionalism of those using them.
Hygiene standards
There are movements to introduce a multitude of specific and global hygiene standards. Consultants are proposing to help industry introduce such standards and to certify them. One cannot summarise the situation better than with the following citation: “So that brings us to the key trends in standard development. Today we have a world where standards proliferate, but where they are not treated with respect and given due importance.”( iii)
Authorities or customers may impose standards. Some of them can be adhered to on a voluntary basis. The latter group is of particular interest in this context. Some specific standards, such as hygienic design standards as established by EHEDG (European Hygiene Equipment Design Group) are useful. The people elaborating them strive for safer, easier to clean and maintain equipment. Through these standards, the equipment is manufactured at a higher hygienic level and manufacturers that maintain these standards are helping to prevent future problems.
Others, such as ISO 9000, which concentrate on standardising existing processes without questioning these standards, are less useful. They may help in formalising processes and improving documentation, but if the company introducing them does not at the same time question its standards and strive for a higher performance, the benefit is not worth the effort.
Certification versus benchmarking Although HACCP, and to a lesser extent ISO, have contributed to food safety and quality, they can be dangerous if wrongly applied: this is simply because if they are wrongly utilised, they may give management the illusion that things are under control in the best of worlds, until the rude awakening comes through hygiene incidents.
Certification is important as a tool to get an independent view of systems and plans in place. It would however be wrong to rely on certification or to have certification as an objective for enhancing food safety and food quality. To show due diligence and to become best in class can better be done by using benchmarking as a technique, which has become an important tool to stimulate improvement. Its advantage is that it does not compare to fixed standards, but to the best in class. What really helps are gap analysis by people knowing the products manufactured in the plant, the equipment and machinery used and the control procedures needed to obtain the desired results. Such people are professional experts in the field of food technology and hygiene, who can compare with the best in class.
In today’s world of business excellence, the approach of benchmarking gives the best result, because it compares to the best in class.
Conclusions
Introduction and maintenance of good hygiene practices and as a consequence, ensuring safe food and high quality products, is an important preoccupation of management in the food industry today. Main efforts need to concentrate on having the right people at the right place, making each individual aware of the influence he/she has on quality and giving him/her the necessary training and tools to do the right things right.
In that context, standards and certification of standards have their role to play. Benchmarking against the best in class and gap analysis of the practices in place (GMP, HHP and HACCP) by professionals is essential.
Today a lot is known, and many food safety incidents can be avoided, but to do this we need to share information and learn from lessons.
References
(i) Codex Alimentaruis Commission, Food Hygiene, Basic texts. Joint FAO/WHO Food Standard Programme. Rome, Food and Agriculture Organization, 1997
(ii) Takashi Osada, The 5S’s Asian Productivity Association. Distributed by Quality Resources, a division of the Kraus Organization Ltd. 1 Water Street White Plains NY 10601 ISBN 92 -8331116-7
(iii) Antony Czura, Hygienomics symposium Helsinki, (1999)
