The European Commission recently published a draft revision of Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 that now includes food safety culture as a general principle. Recognising the important role that culture plays in effective food safety management, the new requirements will align regulation with the evolving expectations of consumers and trade partners and drives businesses to commit to culture improvements.
The new legislation asks management and all employees of businesses to commit to an appropriate food safety culture which includes a clear distribution of responsibilities, appropriate training and supervision, verifying controls are performed timely and efficiently and documentation is up to date.
The Codex Alimentarius Commission is expected to adopt a revision of its standard on General Principles of Food Hygiene in the next few months, which also covers allergen management and redistribution of food.
BRCGS was the first organisation to include culture requirements in our Standard due to the major behavioural element of food safety. Culture is essential to effective food safety management, yet lack of culture plan is the main non-conformity found in sites. BRCGS introduced the Food Safety Culture Excellence assessment tool to provides sites with a simple way to capture the relevant data and use it to improve cultural performance.