26 Feb 2021 SGS launches new program – winning food safety culture

With increasing recognition that robust and successful food safety is dependent on a company’s food safety culture, SGS has launched of Realize, a new program that will help companies achieve just such a winning culture.

Realize will help businesses in the global food supply chain measure their food safety culture maturity levels. This will help them comply with the latest Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) requirements while gaining valuable insights on employee engagement, ultimately leading to reduced food safety incidents.

Why is food safety culture important?

We live in an increasingly interconnected, globalized world – managing food safety is more complex than ever before. Unfortunately, a single instance of human error is often at the heart of many contamination incidents, leading to recalls and seemingly endless disruptions.

This is where SGS Realize comes in. By measuring and continuously improving their food safety culture, companies can retain motivated teams and minimise instances of human error.

Both Codex Alimentarius and GFSI have recognised this and are actively championing an ongoing commitment to food safety culture.

“Our new Realize program was specifically designed to address these requirements by providing an effective means of measuring the culture and providing actionable intelligence that can be used to make improvements,” says Jeff McDonald, Executive Vice President at SGS.

“Food safety culture has now become an integral part of the operation of a food business and requires senior management to lead by example. Whether you are nurturing its beginnings or refining it, measuring behaviours and attitudes is key to identifying further opportunities to realise a winning culture.”

Program details

The program is an online assessment, developed by food safety experts and occupational psychologists, that measures food safety culture.

SGS Realize offers three service levels: Standard, Premium, and Diamond, depending on the company’s specific requirements – with the more advanced options providing additional customisation, access to multi-site analytics dashboards and more.

Importantly, the assessment survey has been translated into more than 25 languages.

Program architecture

The assessment is based on the VEST framework:

• Vision: does the vision define the desired culture?
• Empowerment: are employees empowered to deliver the vision?
• System: do the systems in place support the vision?
• Trust: do employees believe and trust the vision?

To learn more, visit Realize: Winning Food Safety Culture.