Stop Fighting Fires and Master Root Cause Analysis

When a food safety incident happens, a company must take decisive action to mitigate the damage. But putting out fires and applying band-aids is only a partial solution. If the company does not carry out the necessary investigation of what led to the incident, then they face the threat of experiencing a similar incident further down the road - and the consequences the next time may be even more dire.

This is why Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is essential for preventing recurring safety issues.

Why Root Cause Analysis is Important

The FDA defines Root Cause Analysis as “a structured, analytical approach used to identify the underlying cause of a food safety incident. Rather than simply identifying causes or outcomes, an RCA helps to understand why an incident occurred so that targeted interventions can be developed to prevent similar problems in the future.”

RCA is central to the crucial food safety principle of adopting a preventive approach, as opposed to a reactive one. Instead of putting out fires, it helps workplaces build food safety and production systems in which risk is mitigated.

Not only does this help reduce the odds of a food safety incident, but it also saves companies the downtime, lost production, and potential fines, legal ramifications, and damage to company reputation that result from product safety failures.

The FDA states that RCA strengthens the entire food safety system in multiple ways, including:

• ​​Prevention-focused: Insights from RCAs inform preventive action plans, consistent with the proactive approach of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) Final Rule on Preventive Controls for Human Food
• Standardized approach: Consistent RCA protocols improve the quality and reliability of the analyses
• Transparency: Sharing findings builds stakeholder confidence and can help to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements
• System-wide improvement: RCA findings can help strengthen the entire food supply chain by contributing to continuous improvement through the identification of possible causes that may lead to food safety incidents

Root Cause Analysis Helps Food Safety Culture

According to a March 2020 Pew Report, food safety culture is created and maintained more readily in organizations that adopt RCA approaches and provide RCA tools to their staff.

The report states that this is because “a culture of performing RCA emphasizes inquiry and insights over enforcement and punishment” and fosters better collaboration among stakeholders.

Also, “an organizational culture that supports constant vigilance and provides tools to help staff validate corrective actions is essential for strengthening food safety practices.”

The report states that “by adopting a systems-based approach, companies can equip their employees to better evaluate interdependent factors that can affect food safety (such as environment, facility, supply chain, equipment, or employee behaviors), actively consider and anticipate risk, and foster a food safety culture that prevents contamination rather than responds after it occurs.”

By investigating root causes and repeatedly asking why a failure occurred until the underlying root cause is determined, companies can develop a data-driven approach to justify implementing the changes needed for safety, the report states.

The Rootwurks Root Cause Analysis Course

Earlier this year, we released the Rootwurks Root Cause Analysis course to help companies develop the proactive, preventive approach that is essential for food safety. Self-paced and entirely online, this course helps learners understand the foundations of RCA, the tools for RCA, “the 5 Whys,” how to manage Root Cause investigation, and much more: