Dairysafe’s mission
‘To lead the South Australian dairy community to embrace a food safety culture’.
What is food safety culture?
Dairysafe’s Food Safety Culture Award
- The award recognises dairy businesses that integrate food safety into their business culture.
- It also acknowledges industry champion dairy processing businesses.
- Dairysafe places significant emphasis on food safety culture because we know it’s good for business and helps to deliver safe, high-quality dairy products.
- Businesses with a mature food safety culture should be seen as champion dairy businesses.
- If you are a Dairysafe accredited dairy processor, you have the opportunity to showcase your commitment to food safety by nominating for the 2024 Food Safety Culture award. Let your dedication to culture, people, and safety shine through!
2024 Food Safety Culture Award – information pack
2024 Food Safety Culture Award – nomination form
Past winners define how food safety culture operates within their businesses
- “Food safety culture operates within our business via training, education, open communication with all staff, strong reporting, enhancing technology, utilisation of data analytics and building on each staff member’s capabilities.”
- “The food safety culture journey of all employees begins from the initial employment stage and is continued for the life of employment.”
- “Communication is a key tool …… every day, each team member has the opportunity through tier meetings to be briefed on issues that have occurred over the past 24 hours, and discuss any observed risks or hazards that have been identified by the team.”
- “100% of the site is involved with formal teamwork – and have the opportunity to meet with their leader off-line twice a month.”
- “The teamwork meetings provide a forum for team members to set goals across quality, safety, waste and cost. Key opportunities are identified and incorporated into our plans.”
- “Projects are often led by team members with support from leaders, and once completed the project is formally presented to the team and site leadership providing the forum for continuous learning and recognition of team achievements.”
It’s obvious why food safety culture is good for your business
- The return on investment for a business from a solid food safety culture extends to:
- protecting your brand,
- positive quality factors,
- improved workflows
- improved waste performance,
- decreased risk exposure,
- workforce stability,
- employee engagement,
- consumer complaint reduction,
- teamwork,
- improved staff capabilities
- reduction in corrective actions and near misses,
- reduction in maintenance issues
- staff retention
How can food safety culture function at your business?
- Firstly, every food business has a food safety culture.
- However, the level of cultural maturity varies between all food businesses, which is the nature of personalities and of all businesses.
- In a business seeking a strong food safety culture, maturity can be based on how a business makes food safety decisions, for example, how does your business and its people prioritise food safety in decisions and actions? It will also depend on leadership, the level of commitment by the business, trust, and investment in people, particularly around capabilities and knowledge.
- Basing food safety culture on a model and/or a strategy can assist by providing a foundation, highlighting strengths and weaknesses, and defining the cultural roadmap for the business and its people.
Food safety culture links and resources
- Food Standards Australia New Zealand – https://www.foodstandards.gov.au/business/food-safety-culture
- Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) – https://mygfsi.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/GFSI-Food-Safety-Culture-Full.pdf
- The journey of past finalists and winners of the Food Safety Culture Award