Food Safety Culture

Wow - I have spent this week at training and seminars / conferences put on by International Association of Food Protection and it has been amazing.  This afternoon, my last seminar was on Food Safety Culture led by Frank Yiannas the VP of Food Safety for Wal-Mart along with two other speakers.  They presented such great material on how our typical training is not working and food safety cultural change that is working in a company from New Zealand. If training was working we would not be having this conversation.  I also believe as a Society and as a country we do not put forth food safety culture as a priority either.  Are we ahead of a lot of other countries yes but in some aspects we are behind as well.  Other countries have already incorporated food safety culture in their food code.  Other countries have developed tools and determining how to incorporate with their government enforcement agencies.  So, my message is that we cannot just set back and say we are good and put it all on the back of the manufacturers. They do have their fair share in creating a food safety culture within their organization but we as people need to create a food safety culture within our country as well.   There are even websites to help us such as http://www.fightbac.org/ or USDA/FSIS - Ask Karen that offer a ton of information.   When was the last time that we volunteered to talk to FHA group in high school, participate in September Food Safety Month in some fashion?  I know for me it has been a while so while I preach Food Safety Culture to my employer I also have to look at myself in that mirror and say; "What have I done to promote Food Safety Culture lately"?