Critical Thinkers Envision The Process of Feeding the World

Making the case for future exploration in food safety by investing, development your staff...  

        Forward Thinkers are individuals that plan or tend to plan for the future; they are also considered forward-looking.  Like forward thinkers, critical thinkers tend to look forward to avoid any possible critical outcomes; acting on the behalf of those that would potentially be affected; moving to correct anything that has the potential for harm.  Not just “think about it”, they move to resolve any issues.  

Seeing Regulations As Means of Measuring Worth- Not Meeting Requirements    

      Forward Thinkers are [i]often seen as visionaries turning great ideas into multi-million-dollar businesses. While forward thinkers understand there is a price or wages of sort,  they view (cost) as the true measure against the benefits of potential income and profits to the organization and harnessing critical process as the ultimate goal.  While others may see regulations as a means ensuring or meeting public safety; forward thinkers see regulations as an actual measure of what it is worth to a person that is willing to ensure customers satisfaction.   Whereas an measurement that can be recorded as a part of price; worth an amount must be interpreted (thought process). The father of economics, Adam Smith, discussed this very though in The Wealth of Nations (1776):

The real price of everything[ii], what everything really costs to the man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it... But though labour be the real measure of the exchangeable value of all commodities, it is not that by which their value is commonly estimated... Every commodity, besides, is more frequently exchanged for, and thereby compared with, other commodities than with labour."

      The real cost of meeting Global Food Safety Standard is not what it cost to implement, but the savings of potential losses due to recalls and or harm to our customers.   Forward thinking as a process should be viewed as the responsibility that a mature organization, equipping its staff to better serve as World Food Safety Leaders.  Developing, encouraging Critical Thinking  (local workers) as global movers and shakers; seeing themselves as the leaders that moving global products or process to the global marketplaces enhancing an organizations position both economically as well as the deserving status of "worthy of commanding the world stage".  Critical Thinking (as a process) sees (to perceive with the eye) the organizations product from the beginning to the end; ensuring that the quality necessary to delivered and ensures a customer not only received a product; but that the safety of all its ingredients, packaging, and delivery is paramount in making it all happen. This process can be best viewed as the real cost putting a product on every table of the world, by what an organization saves (in recalls, loss production time, law suits) by ensuring it is delivered safe is what it profits. 

   

Necessity The Mother of Inventions 

     Faced with the opportunity, “that was out of this world”, how and what to feed an astronaut in a sealed capsule under weightless conditions while planning for human space flight, NASA enlisted the aid of The Pillsbury Company to address its principal concerns; out of this opportunity Pillsbury developed (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point" the HACCP concept).  The potential of one of the most far-reaching space spinoffs, to address NASA’s concerns; HACCP as a process (forward-look) viewed the necessity that foods be safe, rather than to discover or experiment with food safety issues after they have occurred[iii].

     The next great advancements in Global Food Safety are to those that toil to meet the needs of feeding the world next door.  Critical Thinkers are always on edge of discovering the next new challenge of how to meet the needs of their organization.  Forward Thinking "(the habits of mind) [iv] that characterize a person strongly disposed toward critical thinking includes a desire to follow reason and evidence wherever they may lead, a systematic approach to problem solving, inquisitiveness, even-handedness, and confidence in reasoning".^[5]   Global food safety will not be answered by mass food safety  schemes or certifications that only verify someone has taken a course, but addressing the how to measure and keep foods safe. 

      Regulations seeking to maintain public safety, and can only measure an organizations ability to pass a test or next inspection (at a moment in time) insuring they meet a requirements (temperature 45°, logs maintained), whereas organizational critical thinkers are looking forward; seeking to exceed customers’ expectation as well as ensuring safe food chain.  Somewhere in between are local workers; on one hand the desire to maintain skills to stay employed (certifications, training, etc.) and the other need for the income that is derived from the products the organization produces to earn profits.   The goal of the next global marketer and or regulators; who will ensure a safe food chain is "How" to develop critical thinkers that can measure and comprehend the total process, and ensuring food safety at every step.

 

Developing Critical Thinking
     It is believed by Contemporary Cognitive Psychology regarding critical thinking; “that human reasoning; “an indication of an individual’s willingness and inclination to use thinking and creative abilities“[v]. There exist a relationship between critical thinking skills and critical thinking dispositions, which is an empirical question. "Some people have both in abundance (skills and disposition), some have skills but not the disposition to use them, some are disposed but lack strong skills, and some have neither".  It can be further concluded that the "critical" in Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point, at best MUST be developed and to an organizations profit should be nurtured to ensure the necessary control to maintain the safe food chain, in the global food marketplace.    

Thinking Global Leaning Forward

      Leaning Forward is a 21 century idiom that suggest a "progress, forward thinking movement" being tilt or bend something forward.
Global at heart, the ability to see your product on every table in the marketplace means your organizations must invest in developing critical thinking skills of local workers, moving your organization closer to the solutions that supplies the world.   Critical thinking begins to "lean forward" (tilting, bending) as skills are developed, resulting in the ability to sharpen, improve critical thinking as a process.   What can be viewed as a potential problem or an opportunity to “move a products across the world” is reduced to “how to move it safely”.  When everyone on your team start to Critically Think Globally, everyone now see's your organization now as a global leaders.  A shipment that need to be in Geneva, Switzerland, does not cost any more than the labor to move the same product across town when safety is your objective.  The customer, or the organization that supplies at either end of the world; next door or Switzerland has already calculated the best way to get your product on their customers table when that means making the dining experience complete (there is no need for the customer to think is it safe), the process is now complete and everyone profits! 

 

Larry Bowe, Principle Consultant; H.A.C.C.P. Navigator LLC, a certified ServSafe Food Safety Instructor and Proctor, as well as a certified instructor, proctor for retail food service, grocery outlets by The National Registry of Food Safety Professionals.   

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[i] http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/203258 

[ii] Measuring Worth,

[iii] Innovative Food Safety Systems

[iv] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_thinking

[v] California measure of mental motivation

 

Establishing A FrontLine Defense For Global Food Safety!

for more information on HACCP Navigator LLC go to our web site: 
www.HACCPNavigator.info

           

"Recall" coming to an establishment near you

Success as a food service provider in today's global marketplace will requires you to promote Global Food Safety as a catalysis for organizations growth, and your staff as front line defenders of the quality and safety of food products.  Only the players that "spotlight" responsible food safety and sanitation practices as a framework that promotes a Culture of Food Safety within their organization will stay in business. 
  

Gone are the days when you just trusted your food safety planning and implementation to third parties that does not understand or have a vision of how your products will affect the global food service marketplace.  Everyone now must serves as front line defense within the organization.  This requires a understanding  your H.A.C.C.P. plan and how every delivery will affect your operation.  

Designed by NASA To Keep Astronauts Foods Safe  In Space

Designed to address food safety hazards most fear at that time. The HACCP concept was first developed by Pillsbury in the 1960s, as a quality control program to govern the production of food for the United States space program.    H.A.C.C.P. stands for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point, a systematic preventive approach of handling foods and identifying  physical, chemical, and biological hazards that could enter into the food production processes.   By today's standards, out of the box  H.A.C.C.P. Plans do not   meet every organizations standards because every organization is as different as every organizations products offerings.  Serving great food will require the best ingredients, and promoting Global Food Safety must be the first ingredient on your menu?  Global Food Safety is not just a reference to the world as your marketplace, but also the notion that universal food safety standards must be practiced throughout the organization.  

Global Food Safety Starts At The Local Level

Global food safety starts within a local organization and must include all the stakeholders; from the busboy to the salesperson that ensures and understand how every purchased ingredient will fit into your operation Plan.  Today the world is your marketplace, no matter how you market your products.  By virtue of global marketplace that delivers ingredients for around the world, every food service operator must be ready to handle recalls of products you purchase.  To make the picture clearer, consider the tourist that is going to walk into your establishment, who just so happens to be traveling from Bangkok, China, takes your food service to the other side of the globe. Not having a policy statement on carry outs or a plan for them to carry your famous crab soup back home, makes your establishment a target for an outbreak, loss of income or worse out of business as a result of the high cost of doing business in a global marketplace.  Today, whether your market is local or China, only responsible food handling will keep you doing business.  

                                             The High Cost of Doing Business

A series of high-profile food safety incidents have helped stress the need for major improvements to the nation's food safety system.  An occurrence of E. coli in fresh spinach sickened more than 200 people in 26 states, and resulted in the deaths of five people.  The spinach industry estimated that the economic losses from this recall ranged from $37 to $74 million.  In December 2006, E. coli was detected in lettuce and sickened more than 70 people in five states, which resulted in the hospitalization of approximately eighty-six people. Initially, green onions were mistakenly thought to have been the source of the E. coli leading one restaurant to pull all its green onions from its 5,800 locations.  In 2011 and 2012 alone, food recalls will rack up some $227 Million in Economic Costs according to  Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS).

Creating A Culture of Food Safety

Gone are the days when you hire someone that does not understand food safety as an integral part of their duties and responsibilities.  Responsible employers will putting in place training, development and a means of measuring when a staff member needs to be re-trained.  Having a partner or staff members that can document operation and training instructions, as well as a way to qualify new staff and re-train and retain current staff as new products are added. Each facility should have designated personnel that are certified, and have developed critical thinking to insure your plan is being carried out.

A custom H.A.C.C.P. Plan will ensure each staff members has a working knowledge of the organizations sanitation plan, and what to do when or if a critical control point has been breached.  The custom H.A.C.C.P. Plan will also reflect menu changes, and every time a potentially hazardous event has been identified.  The what if, when, or how to handle foods or food surfaces that come into contact with processing foods becomes everybody's business when they understand your business objectives.  Promoting a culture of food safety spotlights what to do when foods do not meet the organizations standards, instead of how much an ingredient cost that compromises your operation.   

How To Measure If Your Organization Is Promoting Global Food Safety

The measure should always be; who is the least likely person in your organization to understand what will happen if a violation of food safety was to happen within your organization.  Once you have identified these persons or individuals,  ask them a series of questions.   How are ingredients received, and condition they must be stored within your facility?  If a item has been identified as recalled by a vendors: what are the steps in finding, labeling and taking out of circulation?  Handling hot foods, cold foods: if a food is suppose to be hot or cold, what are the core temperatures?   What do you do if those foods are not at the desired temperatures? How does your organization measure and or correct foods that do not meet the quality standards?  Is there any point of the day, when foods or ingredients are exposed to the temperature danger zones for more that 1 hour?  If exposed, how do we corrected, and if corrected, what actions are taken to insure these items are identified, labeled, recorded and take out of safe food supply? 

If any of these concerns or questions are evident, on any level, you have the potential of  having an outbreak within your organization and there may be a need to develop a plan or promote food safety as a workplace expectation or culture. Merriam-Webster Online states "culture" is "the act of developing the intellectual and moral faculties especially by education".  To arrive at a point that food safety has become an essential ingredient; culturally engrained an expectation or process of developing your staffs intellectual and moral faculties must place.  In today's marketplace, a greater emphases on what we do to "keep products safe" vs. "how to make it good"!   

Your staff as the front line defenders of the quality and safety of food products is paramount; with the emphases on a culture of food safety! To allow food safety as a value to be secondary or anything other that "a core expectation" of employment may stresses that food safety plays a lessor importance's within the organization.  Remember promoting global food safety is everyone's business, if you are going to stay in business in a competitive global marketplace, promoting a culture of food safety must be your first objective!

Larry Bowe, Principle Consultant; H.A.C.C.P. Navigator LLC, a certified ServSafe Food Safety Instructor and Proctor, as well as a certified instructor, proctor for retail food service, grocery outlets by The National Registry of Food Safety Professionals.   

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About HACCP Navigator, LLC

HACCP stands for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points. HACCP is an industry-wide effort approved by the scientific community as well as regulatory and industry practitioners.
      Designed by NASA this systematic preventive approach to food and pharmaceutical safety identifying physical, chemical, and biological hazards in the production processes that can cause the finished product to be unsafe, and designs measurements to reduce these risks to a safe level.

Navigating Unsafe Food Handling

      HACCP Navigator™ is a references to the notion of learned skill sets or "the development of critical thinkers" who understand how to navigate unsafe food handling practices.  Navigators are a brand of food handlers that have uniquely developed skills (critical thinking) not just learning information to pass the test.  Navigators have demonstrated they understand how to avoid the pitfalls of serving unsafe foods, through a process of "abundant assessments" indicating they achieved content mastery.  

Developing critical thinking requires food handlers that can maneuver the "what if's", "how to avoid", as well as "what makes foods potentially hazardous" and other other pitfalls.  A unique feature HACCP Navigator LLC is working on is the development of a "3-D virtual game Grid", serving as  simulation of a food operation, and the various critical control points food handlers must master.    


      HACCP Navigator ™, LLC objective is to train and certify food service workers, as well as to stimulate critical thinking.  Food Safety workers are trained to navigate the seven Point Grid; they must pass through fixed approaches, remedies and paths that demonstrate they understand safe food principles, and mastery of the virtual environment.  What makes HACCP Navigators™ unique is participants are not just regurgitating information, but must demonstrate they understand the food safety process.  The goal is to develop a eLearning process that records an individuals levels of mastery, fulfilling documentation and certification as they engage the virtual process.  Participants can be directed to HACCP Navigator eLearning platform to test out, based on their strengthen or need to improve overall skill levels.  HACCP Navigator currently serve as proctors for ServSafe®, and National Registry of Food Safety Professionals, Test Administrator/Proctor.
 

HACCP Food Safety Audit

     A proven management system, HACCP documentation ensures "critical thinkers" improve food safety standards and quality of products served. HACCP Navigator food safety training develops "Critical Thinking" among Front Line food handlers, specifically those in Long term care, and now partnering with National Registry of Food Safety Professionals to enhance grocery or retail food operation settings food service workers. 

   

      HACCP Navigator Seven Point Approach offers clients an introductory Snapshot of their current facility food safety program.   HACCP Navigator LLC blends the current operations with a comprehensive HACCP Plan,  offering a Seven Point Grid Inspections and a next generation food safety education and certification; setting the pace for improved Food Safety Standards for months to come. 

      HACCP Navigator charts the course for your staff to offer quality food service to your clients, improving overall management control & profitability.

      We offer quarterly, semiannual and annual 7 Point Grid Inspections as a added safeguard to quality improvement.   For more information on HACCP Navigator™ go to WWW.HACCP Navigator.com Follow @FSNavigator