What does the Turkish dairy industry have in common with the FSA? More than you might think…
A new law in Turkey means that the dairy industry has recently implemented HACCP-based food safety management systems. For everyone with an interest in spreading good food hygiene you could say it's a Turkish delight! To assess the effectiveness of the systems and potential risks a piece of research has been carried out including audits, questionnaires and an analysis of published literature – the results of this have now been published in the journal Food Control.
We’ve also been carrying out research to identify factors that effect compliance with food safety legislation in the UK, and the second part of this work was published on our website yesterday. Our research included a review of existing evidence and some in-depth interviews.
A couple of the main conclusions from the Turkish research were that larger businesses had higher compliance levels than smaller businesses and that management training is also important. But we know that small businesses can also make a big impact, by carrying out the small steps required by HACCP.
Our research found that for businesses to achieve compliance they needed to meet certain conditions, namely that they are motivated to comply, understand how to comply and are able to comply. There was also recognition of the importance of a high-level management commitment to creating a successful compliance culture within the business. The research found that larger businesses may be better placed to meet these conditions, but that a committed small business may still be able to create a compliance culture, which I think is an important message to reinforce.
The Agency is continuing to explore the issue of food safety culture, including options for developing a tool to enable the identification of indicators associated with different types of food safety culture that have implications for levels of compliance. In the meantime, if you need some practical advice on implementing a food safety management system I recommend that you refer to our Safer food, better business packs.
