Modern Food Safety: Are We There Yet?
The aviation industry always inspired me.
Here are three areas where I believe they are excellent and where I think we can learn from them as a food and beverage industry:
There were in pre-Covid times approximately 100.000 commercial flights per day with a low accident rate of one fatal accident per almost two million flights in 2019. Thanks to their effective aviation safety management systems, there was enormous safety progress in the past two decades. Meanwhile and according to the Food & Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations - the FAO - an estimated 600 million people - almost 1 in 10 people in the world - fall ill after eating contaminated food, and 420 000 die every year.
Number 2, the aviation industry makes intensive use of new technologies like artificial intelligence and data science in various areas such as air safety, airplane maintenance, and crew management, to name a few. Meanwhile, the food industry is only starting to scratch the surface of the enormous potential new technologies could bring. You might know or experience yourself that food and beverage companies are still generating lots of data using paper or Excel and only making little use of them.
Number 3, aviation's traceability system allows tracking airplanes in real-time wherever they are and even lets customers trace and track flights.
Modern Food Safety, Are We There Yet?
Photo © Marc Cwikowski
Lack of traceability and transparency
Imagine if we could do the same to trace and track real-time the food we produce, transport, buy and consume. Would it not be fantastic and a real breakthrough?
Lack of traceability and transparency is a prominent issue in the food industry. We are far from the performance of the aviation industry. There is a crucial need to do better and faster than we do.
Today a traceability exercise performed in 2 hours would not be considered bad by food industry standards. Still, the reality is far from it, and past recalls indicate that organizations keep on struggling with traceability.
While companies are struggling with their traceability system, with the way they resolve issues, with their emergency preparedness and response program or simply with their overall food safety management system, their consumers might be at risk.
Same for their brands and reputation.
Twitter statistics are impressive. Six thousand tweets are being sent per second, meaning that more than 40,000,000 tweets are sent while a company performs a "by the food industry standards" two-hour traceability exercise. I'll let you calculate what it means if tracing takes longer while an organization is trying to recall unsafe products urgently.
Technology and the way we communicate are evolving at full speed. We need to adapt and react to do better and faster. Consumers and customers will not wait. The food and beverage industry should not wait either.
The boiling frog’s legend
The boiling frog is an awful legend describing a frog being slowly boiled alive. The story is that if a frog is put suddenly into boiling water, it will jump out, but if the frog is put in only slightly warm water, which is then brought to a boil slowly, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death.
The story is often used as a metaphor for people or organizations' inability or unwillingness to react to or be aware of threats that arise gradually rather than suddenly.
When having a food safety management system in place, some organizations are frequently very reactive and improve when hitting a wall or facing a crisis. In the worst-case scenario, they do not even react and face again and again the same issues.
But great news!
According to biologists, the frog theory is false: a gradually heated frog will jump out, which is good news and should inspire us to react as the world and the food industry are boiling and changing.
Unlike organizations being reactive, some companies are very proactive, and they are right to do so.
They are an example to follow on how to anticipate changes and adapt.
Taking a pro-active role in something means being ahead. While some organizations are engaging in reacting to current events and maintaining the status quo or only improving a little, others envision the future and shape a path toward it.
Those who do not learn from the past are condemned to repeat it. Those who do not anticipate the future are doomed to be controlled by it.
Proactive people and organizations are continually looking ahead to anticipate and accommodate upcoming changes on the distant horizon. They use insights into tomorrow's challenges to shape today's decisions.
As the food industry changes and food safety challenges and opportunities are evolving, we need to be proactive, anticipate the future and prepare for it. Now…!
The food industry is changing
The food industry is changing very fast worldwide, from how food is designed and where it is grown to its consumption and who is consuming it. This is an exciting time for consumers and for those responsible for bringing safe food to them.
Change drivers such as urbanization, production and processing technology, transport technology, and political forces that have played a large part in shaping current food systems will continue to be relevant.
New drivers will be playing an increasingly important role, however. A global population of 10 billion by 2050, ageing populations changing the consumption base, climate change leading to constraints on water supplies, several restrictions on nonrenewable energy, and communication technology are just a few of these new reshaping drivers of the food industry.
The rise of technology and new scientific discoveries and innovation offer solutions to the food insecurity challenge. The promise of new levels of agriculture and food manufacturing efficiencies provides hope for the future of food production.
Many changes happened during the last five decades. According to the global consulting firm Accenture Strategy, the food industry will continue to drastically reshape itself in food production, retailing and consumption, pointing to more changes in the next ten years than in the last 50.
These are fascinating times for the food industry and food safety professionals, provided we explore and understand what is coming ahead of us and prepare for it.
Food systems continue to shift from being supply-driven to being demand-driven. The food and beverage global market is both technology and consumer-driven.
New products are made available through state-of-the-art methods, technologies, and equipment, while customers' needs and wants shift the entire sector's direction.
When it comes to food and beverage and the food industry, technology isn't always the first thing that comes to mind. However, technology over the years has changed and will change how we produce and find our food through applications, artificial intelligence, robotics, data and processing techniques.
Over the past few years, technology has become a crucial part of various areas of our life. It has not remained science fiction anymore. Like new technologies supporting other industries worldwide, the food and beverage industry will also have many opportunities to implement technological advancements.
Technology is already playing a significant role in the way food is designed, produced and procured. Examples of technologies that are reshaping the food industry in important ways include 1) robotics and machines - our industry has become more cost-effective and qualitative with their introduction 2) Artificial Intelligence which has proven to help in many domains - It is, for example, used in assisting and speeding the innovation process at global leading food companies 3) Sensors which transform the physical world into a world where data help managers with valuable insights and help them make real-time decisions and predict the future.
The urgency to act is evident
There is a need to transform how we manage the food system while ensuring it can support healthy people and a healthy planet. There is also a need to change the way we handle food safety.
To address critical challenges and opportunities, we will need to adapt and innovate. We will also need to collaborate like never before and move several transformation levers at the same time.
As many industries and disciplines did it, there is a need for our food and beverage industry to raise the food safety bar. There is an urgent need to go further and faster.
We see organizations starting to do it. I think that the U.S FDA is paving the way with their New Era of Smarter Food Safety collaborative initiative intended to build on the FDA's efforts to implement the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act.
The food industry is on its way to going further and faster, and this is fantastic. However, and while we are designing modern food safety management systems, we will need to keep three essential things in mind:
The meaning of "modern" and the needed efforts to get there depend a lot on where the organization stands today. In many parts of the world and the supply chain, there is a crucial need for food safety education and infrastructure. Both need to go hand in hand as it is not realistic to expect an increase in food safety performance by training but not providing the right tools, infrastructure and work environment.
We will need to ensure that the systems we design remain simple, pragmatic and effective. Simple, practical, and effective, are vital characteristics and criteria to embed in food safety management systems, regardless of their maturity level.
A truly collaborative approach across the entire food supply chain will have to be deployed so that no one is left behind and all collective efforts go in the same and right direction. Big mature industry players will need to give back by helping those struggling with their food management systems.
I believe that the well known old Plan-Do-Check-Act - PDCA approach will remain valid in the future. The foundations of planning - doing - checking - acting are correct and will remain so in modern food management systems. However, there will be a need to:
Adhere strictly to it with never a compromise on Food Safety. Absolute leadership commitment is crucial for companies needing to strengthen their food safety programmes to keep pace and to remain competitive. Failing to do so can bring lasting damage.
Adopt a dynamic approach related to understanding the context in which the organization operates, recognizing that it is in constant - evolution. Risks and opportunities are evolving so should the approach in place to understand them.
Plan efficiently, and manage changes. Change is the only constant in life is an old piece of philosophical thinking, but organizations still have problems coping with it.
Provide resources as needed from people and their development to infrastructure through a good working environment.
Operate effectively using new technologies that should not be considered a goal but as enablers to do things right.
Use advanced tools to monitor and evaluate performance, and
Finally, ensure the system in place is improved continuously at a fast pace and agility.
As the urgency for change and action is inevitable, we must be agile to remove obstacles that do or will slow transformation. One of the best ways to go faster is to remove the things that slow you down.
It is precisely what Eliud Kipchoge did to break the two-hour barrier in the marathon in 2019. It happened because he mastered agility, innovation and collaboration while believing firmly that no human is limited.
Having crossed the finished line, he said, "We did it", not "I did it," which brings us back to collaboration…
We will never look at a marathon the same way again.
We will never look at food safety in the supply chain the same way again.
What does it mean for food safety leaders?
In today's organizations, we are asking a lot from leaders. They are integral to guiding organizations through growth and transition and are increasingly challenged to make the right decisions. Today's leaders must continue operating the business as usual and guide their organizations through the minefield of the risks and opportunities they face.
Despite leaders' efforts, confidence in their ability to lead organizations into the future is low across the board. When Gartner surveyed employees, only half believed their leaders were prepared to lead their organizations into the future. This is a worrying number, considering leaders' roles mainly consist of people leadership and establishing employees' confidence in their vision.
Worse, Gartner found that leaders also lack confidence in themselves: Only 50% have confidence in their ability to lead their organizations into the future. Gartner also found HR leaders to be the most pessimistic about leaders' prospects; only 14% agreed their organizations' leaders are prepared for the future.
Ensuring we as leaders are prepared for the future is critical.
Are you ready?
The current and future leaders will need to have and demonstrate essential attributes to succeed. The changing landscape means people need to adapt their skills and those of their teams if they are to address challenges and opportunities.
According to a recent survey, current global executives believe that a business leader's essential attribute in 2030 will be to be innovative – cited by 20% of respondents. Meanwhile, 18% say being adaptive to change will be crucial. Being collaborative is also viewed as necessary, with 9% of respondents highlighting this.
They will also have to be agile enough to break down obstacles and processes which have traditionally slowed down transformation.
Innovating - Adapting to change - Collaborating across the food system.
What does it mean for me? What does it mean for you? What does it mean for all of us?
Those who will be playing a future leading role in designing and implementing modern food safety management systems will be agile and responsive to changing circumstances. They will adapt, innovate and collaborate.
In a world of constant change, adaptability is and will be a competitive advantage. Innovation is a crucial talent challenge for most organizations and a talent gap that needs to be closed. A few years ago, XBInsight - a talent assessment company - has collected competency data on nearly 5,000 leaders across a wide range of industries. Analyses were done to identify the competencies that innovative leaders share. The top five competencies found in their research were managing risks, demonstrating curiosity, leading with courage, seizing opportunities and maintaining a strategic business perspective.
Innovative leaders demonstrate a keen understanding of industry trends and their implications for the organization. They thoroughly understand the business, the marketplace, and the customer base and are adept at identifying strategic opportunities or threats.
They actively participate in community, industry and leadership organizations to understand the external environment and have an ability to articulate approaches to moving their agenda forward.
Understanding what collaboration is and is not is a crucial part of getting better at it. Collaboration is suitable for specific tasks and unsuitable for others. People often try to collaborate on everything and wind up in endless meetings, debating ideas and struggling to find consensus.
Coming to know how and when to collaborate is a learning process. Two of the most significant barriers to collaboration are ignorance about others' expertise and mistrust in their ability to meet expectations. Building your network can help solve both problems.
Be strategic about what projects you take on. More isn't necessarily better; it's often worse.
Now is the time
Modern Food Safety: Are We There Yet?
Modern Food Safety: are You ready as an organization?
Modern Food Safety: are You ready as a Leader?
Imagine yourself in the food safety cockpit and dream of having all these tools the aviation industry has to manage safety so well, from the management system to the latest advanced technology.
Imagine tomorrow, and build a vision.
The rest will follow if you believe in it and prepare yourself and your organization for it.
Now is the time. Please get in touch.
References:
FAO - News Article: Food safety is everyone’s business.
The Future of Leadership: anticipating 2030 - Grant Thornton
Adaptability: The New Competitive Advantage by Martin Reeves and Mike Deimler
The 5 Skills That Innovative Leaders Have in Common by Katherine Graham-Leviss
How to Capture Value from Collaboration, Especially If You’re Skeptical About It by Heidi K. Gardner and Herminia Ibarra