Instilling a food safety culture in food organizations

What’s happened and why?

It’s well understood in the food sector that a robust food safety culture matters because most incidents and recalls are the result of human error. As a result, the international food safety community collaborated to produce a position paper defining a food safety culture and its critical components. This work has fed into a new consensus document – PAS 320:2023 – designed to give clear guidance to all food organizations on what a good food safety culture looks like.

What does PAS 320:2023 cover?

It gives guidance on recognizing and maintaining a positive culture of food safety in any food organization, regardless of its size or focus and includes a food safety culture maturity model against which organizations can assess their level of maturity.

PAS 320:2023 also covers the defined prerequisites and taxonomy of organizational culture and supplies case studies that demonstrate the maturity matrix and provide real-life examples that food organizations can implement.

Why use PAS 320:2023?

• It supplies a practical guide to instilling a food safety culture that will benefit food organizations.
• It can help drive best practices through the food sector that mitigate food safety risks.
• It supplies a maturity model against which organizations can measure their own level of maturity and make changes accordingly.
• It can help increase customer confidence in a food organization.
• It can help food organizations improve their risk management.

It contributes to UN Sustainable Development Goal 2 on food security and Goal 3 on good health and well-being for all.