"Food safety is the most important thing every food company does"

A company’s culture is essential to enacting any effective or long-lasting food safety program. 

“Culture permeates everything. You have to define how your food safety culture fits within your company culture,” Stacey Brown, Food Safety Auditor and Consultant with ASI Food Safety told Rootwurks.

Brown spoke to Rootwurks after returning from SQF Unites 2025. Held this year on March 2nd to 5th in Orlando, Florida, the annual conference brings together the top experts in food safety to discuss the biggest challenges the industry and consumers face - and the methods they can take to maximize their chances of success.

The conference is organized by the SQF Institute, which administers the Safety and Quality in Food program, a food safety and quality certification and management system recognized across the world.

This year, much of the buzz at the event circles around the pending release of SQF version 10. The SQF Institute has stated that SQF Edition 10 is set for release in July, and implementation for auditing of the guidelines will begin in the first half of 2026.

On the first day of the conference, Stacey Brown was presented with the 2025 Excellence in SQF Auditing Award.

Brown said that despite the rash of headlines over the past year, she didn’t notice a unique emphasis on recall prevention at the event.

“Recalls are always on peoples’ minds. It's the one thing everyone worries about and they hope it doesn’t happen to them.”

SQF 10 - “A positive food safety culture”

In the upcoming SQF release, one of the requirements will be that companies implement a “positive food safety culture.”

According to Brown, this requires an all-hands-on-deck approach from every team within a company.

“Food safety is not a silo in your facility. You all have to work together. It’s like building a house. If you don’t build a good foundation - which is your vision, mission, purpose, and values - you’re not going to be able to build food safety because you don’t have a good foundation."

Brown said it is up to leadership to determine these company values and priorities, and that “if leadership hasn’t defined it, you’re not going to be able to build a good food safety culture and a positive food safety culture, which is required under SQF 10.”

Leadership is key

“You want to get input from everybody but it’s about the leadership,” Brown said.

She added “communication about what your culture is starts with leadership and then it's how that culture filters down into every department.”

Brown said that it’s not enough for leadership to sign off on safety measures, leadership must also take an uncompromising approach to safety.

“If they’re not willing to define those things and not compromise on them, you’re never going to have a good food safety culture.”

Execution is essential

Once a company has defined its food culture, the next most important stage begins: execution.

“You can define food safety, create plans, and cheerlead it all you want. But if you don’t have a plan to secure or don't know how to pivot when your execution doesn’t yield results, then what?”

Recognize success - not only failure 

On the subject of leadership and execution, Brown said when it comes to accountability it is essential that leaders not only recognize shortcomings but also praise and highlight employees who are excelling. 

“Whether it's a disciplinary action or when employees are doing good things, you should hold them accountable. This also means rewarding them, praising them, and recognizing them. This is missed a lot in accountability and can go a long way to build the safety culture.”

That said, Brown also noted how important it is to ensure employees know they have to be on the same page with the safety culture. 

“It means saying to them, look, this is the direction our boat is rowing. You are welcome to stay on and row in our direction. If not, maybe you need to get off…these are not comfortable conversations.”

“The most important thing food companies do”

Brown said that she sees greater awareness about the concept of food safety culture today than about a decade ago. And while many in the food industry still don’t know what it takes to implement a strong safety culture, the matter is too important and the stakes far too high for companies to fall short. 

“Food safety is the most important thing every food company does because it can touch so many lives if they mess it up.”

To hear Stacey Brown discuss why food safety makes good business sense, check out the recent Rootwurks webinar "How Food Safety Can Save You Money," on-demand here. You can also download the free Rootwurks guide "5 Steps You Can Take to Improve Food Safety Today," featuring many of Stacey's top tips for food safety.