Why grocers must reinvest in food safety culture

Article By Sally Robinson Published February 22, 2023
Article Source: Why grocers must reinvest in food safety culture | Grocery Dive

Leading food retailers drive food safety leadership through preventative systems, not just by checking off items on a list, writes Sally Robinson with Upshop.

Sally Robinson is vice president of strategic initiatives at Upshop, where she focuses on implementation of tech solutions to expedite new item data, processes and regulatory compliance in the fresh space. She has more than 20 years of retail experience including fresh data analysis and management, supply chain management, procurement, retail merchandising, distribution, operations and business process re-engineering. 

Shoppers at grocery stores take food safety for granted. Why? 

Because they trust retailers to be invested in leading preventative food safety practices. Even before the recent bout of bird flu hit the U.S. — and consumer’s food budget due to rising egg prices — the industry has been working hard to raise safety standards in the U.S.

Food safety negligence can compromise that trust. Contamination outbreaks are unfortunately prevalent: the FDA investigated 26 foodborne illness outbreaks in 2022 alone. Consider a major E. coli, Salmonella or Listeria outbreak occurring in your stores. Poorly handled, this type of situation could shatter trust that’s been building over years of brand loyalty.  

The risk is too high to take food safety — and by default any legislation pertaining to food safety — lightly. And as any grocer in the long game knows, rapid global change will always bring about the need for rapid retailer adjustment, especially when it comes to legal compliance.  

How well prepared are your stores for an outbreak? Take for example a high-risk food: What were the receiving and shipping details? What were all the products that are included within the store that need to be removed, and how quickly can this information be provided? How does the organization deliver key information and transparency to its shoppers who might have been affected? 

Understanding where high-risk foods are sold and transformed within your operation develops a precedence to identify them quickly and accurately in the event of an expedited removal. 

The introduction of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) nearly a decade ago brought food safety policy and prevention of foodborne illness to the retail forefront. 2023 saw the Food Traceability Final Rule, a refocus on FSMA section 204, which outlines the importance of tracing high-risk foods through the supply chain and into retail establishments.

What the new rule means for retailers

Let’s take leafy greens for example. FSMA 204 requires defined key data elements from harvesting and cooling prior to initial packing. After the packing event, a Traceability Lot Code is introduced and continues to be linked throughout shipping and receiving. If leafy greens are transformed into prepared items like sandwiches or salads and followed by a shipping event, a traceability lot code must also be captured and follow the newly transformed product. Due to the outbreak of foodborne illness risk associated with high-risk foods, additional record keeping and expedited response times during recall or outbreak is a key guiding principle to FSMA 204.

Retailers need to meet and understand government requirements while exercising consistent prevention. Because food safety is more than an agenda item — it’s a proactive culture.