Hindsight is a wonderful thing…

MAGNATTACK™ Global Food Safety Quote Of The Week.

William Blake, a famous English poet, is known to have said that “Hindsight is a wonderful thing but foresight is better, especially when it comes to saving life, or some pain.”

Whilst Blake may not have been considering the food industry in this statement, we can apply his words to food safety and the preventative controls we adopt.

Learning from our mistakes, from accidents, from history, is essential…but it is also necessary to look past the present and adopt a ‘what if’ attitude, especially when it comes to the safety of our food products and our food processing plants.

What if a co-worker was injured cleaning heavy equipment?
What if our product was contaminated with foreign bodies?
What if this essential piece of equipment was damaged?
What if we had a product recall?

Let’s take a food recall for example. Your product was contaminated with foreign bodies and you were required to recall the batch. You needed to notify the relevant authorities and the public, coordinate reverse logistics and disposal of the contaminated product, investigate the cause of contamination, rectify the problem, and then assure the public that future products were safe.

In hindsight, adequate foreign body controls could have prevented that recall. They could have prevented consumer complaints and injury, prevented financial loss, prevented litigation costs, prevented brand name damage, prevented factory downtime, and prevented the stress and pain of going through the recall.

So what preventative steps can you take to prevent foreign contamination? Look into the future, adopt a ‘foresight mindset’, and help save you, your customers, your coworkers, and your company some pain.