A lot. In the food industry, many food companies view the food safety department as an annoying and irritating cost center. They also perceive, mistakenly, that these cost centers drain critical funds from the company’s bottom line, while not doing much to improve overall product value or price. While this is a short-sighted view which, in large part, ignores the critical need, purpose, and daily (sometime heroic) accomplishments of the food safety team, the attitude is nevertheless present in some companies.

As a result, there are some companies, when looking to fill a food safety leadership position, who will look to hire a food safety manager for as cheap as they can find. And, when filled, these positions are typically occupied by someone with very little real-world food safety education and experience, and/or who are not provided with sufficient support from the company. What these companies do not realize, however, is that a high-quality food safety professional is not simply a luxury to be enjoyed only by the largest companies, it’s a critical need for all companies, regardless of size. Indeed, whether you are producing $5 million worth of high-risk food a year or $50 million, the underlying risks are the same.

So, what’s more expensive than an unqualified food safety manager? Hmmm, let’s, see. How about a $5,000,000 recall for the presence of a pathogen in a ready-to-eat food product caused by the absence of an adequate food safety program – or, the faulty execution of a food safety program.

Responding to an FDA Warning Letter, or USDA Notice of Intended Enforcement (NOIE), threatening to shut a company down, is also often more expensive than an unqualified food safety manager. This could also include the loss in revenue which can and does occur when customers learn about the existence of a Warning Letter or NOIE, and begin to shift their business elsewhere.

Other things that could cost more than an unqualified food safety manager might include the increase in annual insurance premiums following a food safety event (whether a single foodborne illness claim, or a recall regardless of scale), as well as the annual cost of dialysis and medical treatment for a child with degraded kidney function proven to be caused by a foodborne illness.

Definitively more expensive than the cost of an unqualified food safety manager would be the hundreds of thousands (if not millions of dollars) in legal and related fees which would be required to be spent by a company in the defense of potential federal criminal prosecution in the event the company was investigated by the Department of Justice for selling a food product that made people sick.

The point here is that if a company thinks that it may be in its best interest to hire an unqualified food safety manager for as cheap as it can find, that company is almost guaranteed to have long term food safety problems which, in some cases, could eventually cost millions. The key to food safety (and an effective food safety culture) is to have well educated, well experienced, and well credentialled food safety professionals in food safety leadership positions. And, then, to pay them what they deserve.

Let’s hope more companies begin paying a little more for their food safety managers. If they do, they will increase their chances of avoiding an outbreak, a recall, a Warning Letter, and/or a NOIE. They will also, at the end of the day, likely have saved a whole lot more money than they have spent.

What costs more than an unqualified food safety manager?

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