C2009 Understanding Food Safety and Quality Culture – Making Culture Sustainable

About the Course

This fast-paced, 4-hour workshop helps food industry leaders turn “culture” from a poster on the wall into day-to-day behaviors that protect consumers and the brand. We focus on a practical framework aligned with PAS 320’s PDCA approach to building and maturing food safety culture, integrated with your FSMS and leadership practices, and draw on ISO 10010:2020 document for defining, evaluating, and improving organizational culture. You’ll leave with tools to gauge maturity, set indicators, and embed changes that stick.

Delivery Format

• Public or Private delivery. On site at your facility or live remote via Zoom.
• One 4-hour session.
• English delivery, Spanish available on request.
• Maximum 12 participants.
• Materials provided to all participants.

Who Should Attend

Managers, supervisors, and directors in QA/FSQ, Manufacturing/Operations, Sanitation, HR/People, EHS, and Internal Audit at organizations across the food chain (manufacturing, ingredients, packaging, distribution/retail).

Course Agenda

Culture essentials & leadership (What “food safety & quality culture” means, why leadership and governance matter, and how culture connects to your FSMS and organizational culture).

Roles, governance, and change mechanics (Accountabilities, champions/influencers, and a simple change plan using PDCA to move maturity forward).

Measuring culture (Build an indicator set, combine behavioral and outcome metrics, and set review rhythms that drive improvement).

Embedding & auditing for value (Communication and awareness integrating with other functions, and how internal audits can add value beyond compliance).

Learning Outcomes

After this course, participants will be able to

• Explain the relationship between culture, organizational culture and food safety and quality culture.
• Map governance (roles, accountabilities, champions) to accelerate change.
• Build a concise PDCA-based change plan to advance culture maturity.
• Select balanced leading and lagging indicators for culture performance and review.
• Design targeted communication that reinforce desired behaviors.
• Align internal audits to surface risks, opportunities, and real-world improvement

Why this course will positively impact your business

• Prevention first. A culture anchored in hazard and risk awareness shifts teams from reacting to incidents to preventing them—using indicators that reveal trends early.
• Structured change. You’ll use a PDCA-based roadmap that ties leadership, governance, and metrics together so improvements are systematic, not one-offs.
• Mitigation & resilience. Clear roles, accountability, and feedback loops help you mitigate risks faster and manage disruptions more confidently across the food chain.
• Integration. The approach embeds culture into your existing FSMS and everyday management, strengthening your integrated management system rather than creating a parallel program.
• Measurement that matters. Pair leading (behavioral) and lagging (outcome) metrics to prove effectiveness and guide decisions—without drowning in records.
• Value-adding audits. Re-frame internal audits around processes, results, and PDCA so they highlight risks and opportunities that management cares about—not just paperwork

Completion Requirements

Full attendance and participation in the exercises are required to receive a certificate of completion from QFS Assurance.

Managers, supervisors, and directors in QA/FSQ, Manufacturing/Operations, Sanitation, HR/People, EHS, and Internal Audit at organizations across the food chain (manufacturing, ingredients, packaging, distribution/retail).