In our series of food safety interviews, Sterling Crew previous Chair of the IFST Food Safety SIG speaks with Quality Manager, John Globe.
John Globe FIFST has been in and around the food industry his entire working life. Direct work experience has been mostly quality management of low-risk food, preceded by short periods in other functions followed by 20 years as a Lead Auditor with certification body LRQA – ISO 9001 in food and other industry sectors, BRC (early versions), ISO 22000, FSSC 22000 and other standards/schemes. He became an independent auditor/consultant 10 years ago when the majority of the work was for LRQA. He is semi-retired and is now mostly involved with small brewery audits (SIBA FSQ scheme) and ISO 9001 consultancy for one non-food client.
SC: How did you start your career in the food industry and what motivated you to join?
JG: During my school years, I had long-standing interests in both biology and chemistry but had no idea what I wanted to do as a career. After an abortive year on a biochemistry degree course and still, with no idea what I wanted to do, I replied to an advertisement by Unilever Research, Colworth House for technical assistants. I was interviewed for four jobs and had offers for three of them (this was 50 years ago – can’t see it happening today!). I accepted the offer of a job in the Plant Chemistry section – for me, over the next 2 years, this meant a mixture of analytical work, preparation of samples (both laboratory and small pilot plant scale) in support of the department’s work on tea and potato products. My claim to fame was that I was there at the “birth” of the potato waffle. I rapidly become interested in all aspects of the work, and from that point onwards decided that a career in the food industry was for me.
SC: Why did you choose a career in quality assurance and food safety?
JG: Again, it seemed to take place almost by accident. In 1977, my employer had outgrown an old sugar confectionery factory in East London and decided to build a modern replacement on a green field site at Colchester. I applied for and was lucky enough to get, the position of Quality Manager. A significant part of the role was investigating customer complaints and those made by Environmental Health Officers (EHO). Many of the latter were potentially serious foreign body complaints, which was brought home to me as I had to attend court on occasion! I am determined to do everything in my power to eliminate such occurrences and thus safeguard the consumer.
SC: What were the main food safety challenges in your work?
JG: As a Quality Manager, getting staff at the sharp end to understand the importance of their jobs in helping to prevent foreign body contamination eg. by diligently carrying out hourly metal detector checks and stopping the line promptly and seeking assistance in the event of detector malfunctions. More recently whilst auditing a frozen food company who were encountering metal complaints despite the product passing through metal detection. The suspicion was that staff were replacing rejected products on the line downstream of the metal detector on the basis that these were false positives due to condensation on the product. Cameras (CCTV) were being considered in the area in an attempt to identify or discourage this practice.
SC: Why did you join the IFST?
JG: I felt quite isolated in my role as Quality Manager and wanted contact with other professionals working in a range of food industry sectors. In the early 1980s, I joined as what was the associate grade which was upgraded to Member in 1986. In those early years I was able to attend a number of events including meetings, factory visits etc. and for a time was a member of the Eastern Branch committee which gave me some experience of helping to organise events. In 1990 I started working for LRQA and was constantly away from home or getting back late from audits. Consequently, my involvement with the IFST was minimal until I stopped working for LRQA at the end of 2017.
SC: What prompted your interest in joining the Food Safety Group?
JG: I have long realised the importance of food safety from my experiences in the 1980s, trying to deal with the “aftermath” of problems, and in more recent times seeing how my auditee clients addressed food safety issues. Now, being semi-retired, there is the opportunity to spend some time on this, which did not happen a few years ago – albeit, my current auditees operate in a low-risk food safety environment (when they can operate at all – small brewers!).
SC: What does food safety mean to you?
JG: Food safety is all about having an effective risk management process in place, from raw material sources through the supply chain to the final consumer. It requires an understanding and commitment to consistently get it right the first time, from stakeholders at all levels in the supply chain i.e. a positive food safety culture.
SC: Food allergens continue to dominate the news. We have seen a number of public recalls and some tragic cases of illness and even death. Some have blamed “inadequate” labelling. What is your view?
JG: I think inadequate labelling has certainly played a part, but even with “perfect” labelling it is of no use unless people actually read and act upon it. In some of the most high profile cases, in a food service setting involving illness or even death, the person concerned was aware they suffered from a serious allergy and asked the right questions, but either through dishonesty or lack of due diligence by the vendor, ended up with a food they were allergic to with tragic consequences.
SC: Do you have any tips for members who are just starting their careers?
JG: In an ideal world, try to gain experience in different roles, companies and sectors of the industry at an early stage in your career. This would help you find what type of role fits your individual “shape” best, as well as hopefully equip you for any enforced changes, such as redundancy which you are more likely to encounter than in earlier times. I found that even if something appeared to be a mistake at the time, I took learnings away from holding that position which was still useful decades later.
SC: What are your customers telling you that they need support with?
JG: Not so much as “telling “ me but it arises in the course of the audit – understanding and implementation of a meaningful Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) system. Being very small companies, many have utilised a consultant to set up their HACCP system – in some cases, one that would be barely fit for purpose in a larger organisation has merely been transplanted rather than developing a system that suits the company and the nature and scale of its activities.
SC: What is your view on the National Food Strategy?
JG: In my opinion, the IFST produced a very comprehensive and well-balanced document that highlighted the complexity of the UK and global food system. If this was not daunting enough, a number of other factors, including political, social and economic, also impact on food systems. For example, rising levels of obesity may be linked to more sedentary lifestyles both at home and at work, the rise of “takeaway culture”, increased snacking and soft drink consumption coupled with a reduction in “formal” meals at home, increased car use vs. walking, cycling, public transport etc. Good to see an emphasis on the education of children regarding all aspects of food. As with most strategies, the “proof of the pudding” will be in the implementation!
SC: How do you see the future of food safety and quality evolving over the next 5 years?
JG: Allergen issues are going to remain important and there are likely to be new challenges with novel ingredients being used in the quest to replace meat. A move away from paper records, in all but the smallest companies, will help with traceability and visibility of records in real-time to interested and legitimate stakeholders. Whatever the changes, the consumer will still require safe and appetising food to be consistently delivered to their point of purchase.
SC: Thank you John for your valuable insight.
DISCLAIMER – The opinions expressed are the author’s own and do not represent the views of IFST