When BRCGS introduced Issue 9, many operators noted the addition of a food safety culture requirement within the senior management commitment section — a concept harder to measure than familiar technical requirements such as storage temperature or cleaning procedures.
Why the Standard Prioritizes This
Investigations into many major food safety incidents worldwide consistently point to root causes that are not a lack of technical knowledge, but an organizational culture that discourages employees from reporting problems honestly, or production pressure that leads staff to skip safety steps to meet deadlines.
Elements of a Strong Food Safety Culture
A strong food safety culture comprises several elements: clear, consistent communication from senior management about the importance of food safety; adequate resource allocation that does not treat food safety as a mere cost; encouraging staff at every level to report problems without fear of punishment; and systematically measuring changes in employee behaviour.
How Auditors Assess This in Practice
BRCGS auditors assess food safety culture through interviews with staff at multiple levels, observing actual behaviour on the production line, and checking whether an organization's food safety culture plan matches reality or is merely a document prepared for the audit. Organizations that genuinely want to meet this criterion must invest real time building organizational culture, not merely drafting a policy document.