Food safety and quality culture — objectives, plan and visible commitment
Plain-language summary
Senior management must set culture objectives, resource them, back them with a dated plan, review them, and show that commitment reaches every employee.
What the clause is really asking
Culture is how people behave when nobody is watching. Version 7 turns it into an auditable requirement. Senior management must establish and maintain food safety and quality culture objectives as part of the management system and provide sufficient resources, addressing at minimum communication, training, employee feedback and engagement, and performance measurement of defined activities across every part of the organisation that affects food safety and quality. The objectives must be supported by a documented culture plan with targets and timelines, and fed into management review and continual improvement. And a demonstrable commitment from all personnel — not just the leadership team — must be available.
What auditors look for
Auditors read the plan, then go looking for the evidence: survey results, near-miss and hazard reports raised by operators, training completion, communication records, and — above all — what people on the floor say when asked why a control exists. A plan with no numbers, or numbers with no dates, is the most common finding.
Typical evidence
Culture objectives and a dated plan with targets; resource allocations; communication records; training records; employee feedback and engagement evidence (surveys, suggestion schemes, near-miss reports); performance measurement data; management review inputs and actions
How to comply — recommendations
Pick a handful of measures you already collect — hygiene audit trend, hazard reports per month, training completion, a short annual survey — and give each a target and a date. Show engagement from every level: shift talks, operator-raised issues, recognition. Put culture on the management-review agenda as a standing item and record what changed as a result.
Common nonconformities
Policy statement instead of a plan; no targets or timelines; no employee feedback mechanism; culture never discussed at management review; commitment visible only from senior management
Related clauses
ISO 22000 5.1 (leadership), 5.2 (policy), 6.2 (objectives), 7.3 (awareness), 9.3 (management review); FSSC 22000 2.5.9
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