Develop a shared understanding of food safety culture

Aim

Develop a shared understanding of food safety culture among:

• food regulators
• certain food business sectors.

This activity supports Australia’s Foodborne Illness Reduction Strategy 2018-2021+.

Leads

As part of the Implementation Subcommittee for Food Regulation (ISFR), the lead for this activity is SA Health.

Authorisation

The food ministers agreed at their June 2018 meeting to the ISFR's involvement in activities to support the foodborne illness reduction strategy.

Status

This activity is complete.

Completed work

This activity achieved:

• creating and trialling a package of tools and resources covering food safety culture specific to raw egg products and/or allergen managements, including
  • a maturity model to measure food safety culture for in-scope food businesses and a behavioural guide for encouraging improvements
  • national resources for training Environmental Health Officers (EHOs) on the importance of food safety culture and what this looks like in a business
  • a guideline on the safe preparing of raw and lightly cooked egg products that could be used as consistent national guidance
  • a questionnaire used to assess food safety culture traits of a business
• developing EHOs in 6 states, raising the profile of, and improving their understanding of food safety culture
• results indicating some participating food businesses strengthened their understanding and management of food safety risks even after a short amount of time – this was demonstrated through improved practices.

Resources are available on the FSANZ website.

View the pilot summary and lessons learnt report.

Related information

View all the activities to reduce foodborne illness.