What is food safety culture according to GFSI?
It is how people on a site think and act about food safety when nobody is checking. GFSI has made it a reference concept for the whole industry.
In March 2026 GFSI published Version 2.0 of its position paper *A Culture of Food Safety*, replacing the 2018 edition. It defines food safety culture as deeply rooted beliefs, behaviours, values and assumptions, learned and shared by all employees, that together shape the organisation’s food safety performance.
The paper keeps the five dimensions of 2018, with refined wording, arranged in two tiers:
Tier | Dimension (GFSI 2026) | What you see on a site |
|---|---|---|
Organisational foundations | Company values, vision and mission | Food safety appears in strategy, investment decisions and production trade-offs |
Organisational foundations | People: commitment, empowerment and accountability | Everyone knows their role, can stop a line and is recognised for raising a problem |
Manifested practices | Hazard and risk awareness | Operators know why a rule exists, not just that it exists |
Manifested practices | Consistency for food safety | The same rules apply at night, at weekends and in peak season |
Manifested practices | Adaptability, change and continuous improvement | The site learns from incidents and near misses |
GFSI stresses that it defines the "what": maturity models and diagnostic tools are for scheme owners, companies and specialists to develop.
What do BRCGS, IFS and FSSC 22000 Version 7 require?
All three schemes make food safety culture a senior management responsibility, with objectives, a plan and measured results. The wording differs, but the same four elements come back.
Scheme | Where the requirement sits | What you must be able to show |
|---|---|---|
FSSC 22000 Version 7 | Clause 2.5.8 "Food safety and quality culture", in addition to clause 5.1 of ISO 22000:2018 | Culture objectives inside the management system; sufficient resources; actions on communication, training, employee feedback and engagement, performance measurement; documented plan with targets and timelines, included in management review; demonstrable commitment of all personnel |
BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9 | Requirements on senior management commitment | A plan for developing and improving food safety and quality culture, owned by senior management |
IFS Food Version 8 | Requirements on corporate policy and senior management responsibility | Food safety culture built into the corporate policy; objectives on communicating policies and responsibilities, training, employee feedback and performance measurement; management review |
Two practical consequences follow. First, culture is not a stand-alone document: it is managed inside the system, alongside the other objectives. Second, the auditor looks for consistency between the plan and the floor. An operator who does not know whom to tell about a problem contradicts the whole file.
How do you measure food safety culture?
By combining three sources: what people say, what the numbers show and what you see on the line. Any single source gives a distorted picture.
1. What people say
An anonymous survey in the languages your workforce actually uses (Arabic and French in Morocco, local languages elsewhere in Africa), run once a year across every level and shift. Questions follow the dimensions you target: "Can I stop the line if I see a hazard?", "Does my supervisor act on my comments?". Add short interviews with operators, team leaders and temporary staff.
2. What the numbers show
Indicators already available in your system, tracked over time:
- number of hazard reports and near misses raised by staff;
- average time to close non-conformities and corrective actions;
- completion rate of the food safety training plan;
- internal hygiene audit results by area and by shift;
- customer complaints related to food safety.
Watch out for one trap: a rising number of reports is often good news. It shows that people dare to speak up.
3. What you see on the line
Regular floor walks by senior management, with a simple grid: handwashing, protective clothing, zoning, reaction to a deviation. Observe night shifts and peak periods too, when production pressure is highest.
How do you build an annual plan an auditor will find credible?
A good plan starts from the diagnosis, sets few objectives, names owners and deadlines, and is measured. The template below follows the structure required by FSSC 22000 v7 and also works for BRCGS and IFS.
Dimension | Objective for the year | Action | Indicator | Owner | Deadline |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Values, vision and mission | Management commitment is visible | Monthly floor walk by the site director, with a written report | Walks completed vs planned | Site director | Monthly |
People | Everyone dares to report a problem | Simple reporting channel with systematic feedback to the reporter | Number of reports, response time | Quality manager | Q1 |
Hazard awareness | Operators know the hazards of their workstation | Short on-the-job training in the workforce’s language on CCPs and allergens | Pass rate of workstation tests | Team leaders | Q2 |
Consistency | Rules apply to every shift | Cross hygiene audits between day and night shifts | Score gap between shifts | Production manager | Q3 |
Adaptability | The site learns from incidents | Monthly near-miss review with actions | Actions closed on time | HACCP team | Monthly |
The numerical targets for each indicator belong to your site: set them after the first measurement, not before.
Use this list to launch your plan:
How do you link food safety culture to training and its funding?
Training is one of the four required elements: it must be planned, suited to the job and evaluated, then tied to the culture objectives. In Morocco it can be included in OFPPT special training contracts (CSF).
Three simple rules make training work for culture, not just for the audit file:
- Train at the workstation, in the language of the workstation. A session in Arabic, in front of the line, on the real hazards of that step changes behaviour more than a classroom lecture.
- Train middle management. Team leaders make the culture every day: they are the ones who arbitrate between line speed and safety.
- Measure the effect. A workstation test, an observation after training, an indicator that moves: this is the evidence the auditor expects.
Funding follows the CSF rules in force, to be confirmed with OFPPT: the rule, the source and a simulation, never a promised amount. Our guide to OFPPT special training contracts (CSF) explains the procedure, and our training funding page offers an indicative simulator.
To see where culture fits among the other Version 7 changes, read FSSC 22000 Version 7: what changes and the v6 to v7 timeline.