Preventing Food Recalls: Effective Training is a Key Ingredient for Ensuring Success

By Rhonda Wellik (Cert ID) and Lori Carlson

For suppliers and food manufacturers, the recipe for preventing a food recall requires a blend of familiar ingredients, including knowledge, diligence, transparency, and effective controls. But what shapes and binds these attributes into a finished product that can be labeled “an effective food safety management system” (FSMS), is training.

Training sets the foundation for the process, product and supply chain knowledge required to develop the components of a FSMS. It is the tool that ensures all employees are implementing prerequisite program (PRP) activities and food safety controls correctly, for every batch or lot of product. And most importantly, continuous training—like continuous improvement—helps identify performance gaps and realign employees with food safety and hygiene best practices. This reinforces a food safety culture by investing in workers and empowering them to be the first line of defense for keeping harmful products out of the marketplace.