Enhanced Food Safety Training Key to Compliance

By Tina Brillinger

With new food safety regulations rolling out in Canada on the heels of the new American legislation it’s important that businesses know what’s changed, and what employees need to be doing differently, in order to meet compliance. So, it’s no surprise that one of the biggest trends in the industry is ensuring that proper food safety training is available to employees, and that they retain what they’re learning.

This is a big priority, as mounting numbers of food recalls and food-related crises indicate. A recent industry-sponsored survey on Global Food Safety Training determined that:

• In 42% of companies surveyed, audits show employees have a lack of understanding of proper food safety practices

• 67% of companies surveyed reported employees are still not following their food safety program on the floor and

• 27% of them have incomplete training records

We know from other sources that the top challenges to food safety training are shifting.

Companies surveyed in the 2018 Global Food Safety Training Survey demonstrated a strong commitment to food safety, but noted there are gaps in executing it. And a lack of resources continues to be a major issue. Food companies identified their top three food safety challenges as scheduling time for training, verifying effective training has taken place, and organizing refresher training.

Food Safety Training Providers

The old ways of training (reading manuals, on-the-job) are not as effective as they used to be, due to changing demographics and learning styles. Best-practice companies are now using interactive training, micro-training, redesigned onboarding, e-learning kiosks, supervisor huddles, digital signage, and other tools to engage today’s frontline employees and ensure knowledge retention.

Global Food Safety Resource has spent significant time and energy researching training-related issues in the development of our recently-launched Safe-Food Training Hub™. Our industry research shows that in order to provide a good learning environment, training providers need to be able to deliver:

• Consistent up-to-date information. With the plethora of technology and advancements available to deliver training, providers can provide courses that meet industry and government regulations in a variety of settings: live training, e-learning, virtual learning, conference workshops and in-house training.

• Interactive and engaging content. Engaging employees through the use of technology can net excellent results for learning.

• Content in multiple languages. Food industry employees are diverse, and, for many, English is not their primary language.

• Regular testing and evaluations to ensure learning retention

• And, finally, training providers need to automatically document and report on results; having a defensible training record stored digitally in a central location is key.

Food Safety Training Programs

There are many excellent training courses and programs available on the market but it can be challenging for a food company to determine which programs offer the best content and format for their employees. The new Safe-Food Training Hub™ from Global Food Safety Resource® aims to address this by simplifying the ability for food companies, of all sizes, to source flexible training options from quality vendors. An investment in training will give practitioners an opportunity to build on skills that will benefit an organization’s overall record of compliance and adherence to food safety standards.

About the Author

Tina Brillinger is President and Founder of Global Food Safety Resource which publishes interactive digital food safety content through a variety of channels and platforms to educate and inform food professionals about best practices to meet food safety standards and compliance. Tina’s latest product is the Safe-Food Training Hub™ an e-commerce platform that provides flexible learning courses by the world’s leading training vendors, based on a companies individual needs. To learn more visit: globalfoodsafetyresource.com or safefoodtraininghub.com.