A foodborne illness outbreak is a nightmare scenario for a co-op — one that can severely damage your co-op’s brand and destroy community trust. Creating a Food Safety Culture will mitigate the chances of a foodborne outbreak striking your co-op. It requires putting programs, tools and procedures in place to form a firm foundation that supports a commitment to food safety.

Recently I attended the Food Safety Summit, and the hot topic was Active Managerial Controls. Its use is growing in the grocery sector, and it is valuable for co-ops to understand and implement for their fresh departments. Active Managerial Controls, or AMC, is a food safety management system which follows a preventable approach to monitoring and controlling hazards often found in retail perishable departments, especially those associated with complex processes such as cooling foods in the deli or cutting ready-to-eat fruit in produce. Active Managerial Controls includes predetermined Standard Operating Procedures, Monitoring Records and Corrective Actions for duties that carry a significant risk.

Prerequisite AMC programs

When you know what the high risk factors are, you can build structured safeguards to prevent dangerous conditions. The prerequisite AMC programs of a food safety system include:

• Standard Operating Procedures – Standard operating procedures, or SOPs, should be developed for the critical processes or the ones that carry the biggest risk to public health — cooling, cooking, food processing, etc. To create an SOP, begin by developing a flow chart for each process. Using the flow chart as a guide, describe what the process is, how it should be completed, when and by whom. Make sure to include validated science behind each step if it includes critical limits such as sanitizer concentrations, cooking temperatures or holding temperatures. Finally, include an area on each SOP document where management and associates can sign and date to acknowledge their understanding. SOPs should also be used as a tool for associates to demonstrate knowledge during ongoing training.
   
• Monitoring Records – Implement monitoring records into any process that uses time and temperature as a control. Monitoring records are the verification process that validates that AMC.
   
• Corrective Actions – Develop predetermined corrective actions for each SOP. They should describe what an employee must do when a process deviates from the SOP; be sure to include who, what, when and how. Corrective actions should also describe what staff did with the affected product after taking the corrective action.
   
• Good Retail Practices (GRPs) – Develop and customize good retail practices for each department. Your GRPs should look like a short audit list that describes the correct product temperatures, cleanliness, hand washing parameters, employee health, equipment conditions, etc. Use them to validate and verify that your AMC program is working. GRPs are a great tool for auditing a department at the start of each shift.

AMC in the Fresh Departments

With an understanding of these key AMC programs, you can apply them to your co-op’s fresh departments. Here are the most significant areas needing Active Managerial Controls:

• The Store – Consider the store as the umbrella for all departments. As such, the store should implement foundational requirements that support the perishable departments’ AMC programs, including:

1. Certified Food Manager Certification for all management and department heads of perishable departments.
2. Adoption of a Health Policy Reporting Agreement with employee practice expectations for all staff (new staff should sign the agreement at the time of hire).
3. A Continuous Food Defense Awareness Training Program to address and minimize the chance of intentional adulteration of food and ingredients.
4. A licensed pest control operator contract to carry out an ongoing Pest Control Program for the store.

• Deli Department – The most critical department in a retail operation for hazard controls is prepared foods. Many reported retail foodborne illness outbreaks originate from prepared foods departments (along with improper allergen labeling). Standard operating procedures and corrective actions should be developed for all of the complex processes in a deli, including food prep, cross-contamination, cooking, cooling, cold and hot holding, reheating, sanitation (e.g., slicers), hand washing, glove use compliance, thermometer verification/calibration, date marking, allergen labeling, receiving and ongoing training.
   
• Meat Department – Meat departments should develop standard operating procedures and corrective actions for sanitation, grinding, receiving, hand washing, temperature monitoring, thermometer verification/calibration, grind logs for tracking lot numbers, cold holding, cross-contamination and ongoing training.
   
• Produce Department – Produce departments carry very common items often associated with foodborne outbreaks — leafy greens and cut melons. They can also have very complex processes that are considered to be of high risk such as cutting ready-to-eat produce, grinding nut butters and juice processing. Develop standard operating procedures for washing and sanitizing fruits and vegetables that are intended to be sold ready-to-eat. SOPs and corrective actions should be developed for temperature control for safety foods — especially sprouts, often associated with foodborne outbreaks. Also include receiving, sanitation, hand washing, glove use compliance, cold holding, crisping, thermometer verification/calibration, juice labeling and ongoing training in your SOPs and corrective actions.

A Commitment by the Entire Co-op

It is important to note that AMC does not work without the full support of a co-op’s general manager and management team. Without precautions and careful procedures in place, it’s not a matter of if a foodborne outbreak will occur, but when. AMC can help prevent an outbreak, but it must be ingrained into the expectations and vision of the co-op. It is this commitment that creates the food safety culture that will minimize risk, reduce the chance of illness, and ensure high quality fresh departments that delight your customers.

For more information on Active Managerial Controls and how to implement these programs at your co-op, contact Greg Johnson or your NCG retail specialists. Visit the Food Safety and Preferred Practices sections of our website for more resources.