Practicing Antifragile Food Safety

Antifragile is a term used to describe systems that improve with small shocks. This is different from systems that are robust or resist shock yet stay the same. In very technical terms, objects and systems that have a convex response to stress are antifragile.

HACCP has been the foundation for food safety systems for the last 20 years and the principles are focused on designing control points based on potential failures. Awareness of past problems and a deep understanding of production systems is needed to develop a HACCP plan. HACCP assumes failures can be predicted. While HACCP was an advancement for food safety, foodborne illness and recalls still occur with some frequency.
In recent years, there has been recognition that food safety culture is also an important aspect of producing safe food. It is clear that culture is important, but there is an opportunity to provide additional information on how to improve culture. The principles of antifragile systems would not replace HACCP, but should provide some specific practices that enhance food safety culture.
One simple example of making a system more antifragile is the act of sharing of details related to small failures. If the sharing of failures leads to overall improvements, the system will be less likely to fail again. The system got stronger through failure. However, it is often the case that within a production facility or within a company, there is a reluctance to share when failures occur. In some cases, sharing of the basic facts occurs, without a deep dive into the root cause. A culture that embraces sharing would, over time, create a system that is more antifragile.
This book would be the first opportunity to explore these principles in the context of food safety systems and food safety culture. While some of the concepts presented would likely match with continuous improvement themes, the principles antifragile systems would provide a unique approach to building food safety program that are more than robust. The book would be a roadmap to identifying fragile systems and plan for moving toward antifragile systems.

Auteur
Scott Hood is Director of Global Scientific & Regulatory Affairs at General Mills.

Contenu
Introduction.- Events of the Past Leave a Lasting Impression.- Making the Case for Change.- Introduction to Antifragile.- Life if Random.- How can Antifragile Work in the Food Industry?.- Risk and Rigor: Considering Efficiency vs Redundancy.- Measuring Food Safety Risk.- Additional Considerations.- Final Thoughts and Summary.