C 355/20
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
16.9.2022
3.14.
Food Safety culture (FSC) In autumn 2020, the revision of the General Principles of Food Hygiene (CXC 1-1969) introduced the establishment and maintenance of FSC as fundamental to the successful functioning of any food hygiene system.
In March 2021, a specific Chapter XIa on FSC was introduced in Annex II of Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 by the adoption of Commission Regulation (EU) 2021/382, defining the components of FSC.
Food business operators, carrying out activities other than primary production and associated operations, therefore must comply with this requirement.
Chapter XIa of Annex II to Regulation (EU) 852/2004 refers to the following components of a FSC: a) commitment of the management and all employees to the safe production and distribution of food; requirements on management commitment are further elaborated and laid down in the Regulation (EC) No 852/2004; commitment of employees is the perception of the extent of engagement and involvement concerning food safety of all employees in the FBO.
b) leadership towards the production of safe food and to engage all employees in food safety practices; leadership can be defined as the perception of the extent to which the leader(s) of the FBO are able to engage staff in food safety performance and compliance to meet the requirements concerning food safety and to ensure the adequate reaction to risks, deviation and changing circumstances; c) awareness of food safety hazards and of the importance of food safety by all employees in the business; awareness is the perception of the extent to which all staff in an FBO are aware of the risks concerning food safety relevant within their tasks, and has these under control; d) open and clear communication between all employees in the business, within an activity and between consecutive activities, within one production site or different locations of an FBO, including communication of deviations and expectations; communication refers to the perception of the extent of transfer or diffusion of information related to food safety within the organisation; e) availability of sufficient resources to ensure the safe and hygienic handling of food; sufficient resources is defined as the perception of the extent to which physical and non-physical means, necessary to operate in a food safe way, are present in the FBO (e.g. time, personnel, infrastructure, education/training and procedures).
Although the components are subjective (perception), tools have been developed to measure objectively FSC in a FBO, see the example in Appendix 3.
They allow to compare the extent to which FSC and its components are met between FBOs, between different groups of employees within a FBO (e.g. operators versus management, different sites, in direct contact with foods or not) or to evaluate trends in time (by repeating the tool).
This can trigger corrective action such as additional training of certain staff on some or all of the components of FSC, enhancement of communication channels, investment in resources, etc. An example of such a tool that can be used as a basis to develop and assess FSC can be a survey with a number of indicators/statements for each of the components of FSC.
Respondents can express the extent to which they agree or disagree (e.g. on a scale from 1 to 5).
Such tool can also be used as a basis to verify food safety culture in a FBO during an audit (see Annex III).
Other tools may be published on the website of the European Commission when they become available.
Slightly alternative approaches and assessment tools (guiding questions) are developed by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) (13).
FLEXIBILITY EXAMPLE: The Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 explicitly recognized that ‘The implementation of the FSC shall take account of the nature and size of the food business’.
It is obvious that the nature of the product e.g. its vulnerability to contamination and growth of hazards and the handling in the FBO, influences the need for the extent of a food safety culture, but the commitment to produce safe food must be present in all businesses.
In very small establishments, for example a retail establishment owned by a family without or with a very limited number of external staff, the food safety (13) https://mygfsi.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/GFSI-Food-Safety-Culture-Full.pdf