To improve quality, it takes effort from all levels of the organization, including management. Everyone has to work together to set the tone for the culture, and this is especially critical for improving food safety culture, like the improvements outlined by Brianne Shelley (Shelley, 2015):

1. Maintain a food safety culture team.
2. Make sure you have a customer focus.
3. Communicate effectively.
4. Measure and assess the food safety culture regularly.
5. Engage and involve employees.
6. Train and reinforce food safety.
7. Make a long-term commitment to sustain and improve food safety.

To accomplish the above goals, Blue Apron must implement Deming’s 14 points of improved total quality management (TQM). Table 1 shows how Blue Apron must implement each.

1) Improvement of products and services is created through a multi-disciplinary food safety culture team committed to consistent high quality.	8) Fear has no place at Blue Apron. Everyone is simply held accountable to their actions at a high level.
2) The new philosophy of Blue Apron incorporates the highest level of safety.	9) Barriers between staff areas are broken down to seed mutual support and an atmosphere of helping each other succeed.
3) Mass inspection is no longer a part of the structure. More frequent and rigorous inspection is absolutely required.	10) Slogans no longer have a place at Blue Apron.
4) A vendor or supplier’s prices are not enough to become a part of the Blue Apron family. Everyone must pass rigorous vetting.	11) Numerical quotas of meal kits to produce are a thing of the past. We’re looking for quality, not simply quantity.
5) Improvement efforts will never end.	12) All barriers to workmanship pride are removed.
6) New training initiatives around food safety are implemented.	13) Education and retraining around food safety gets implemented company-wide. Including at the highest levels.
7) Every person in a position of leadership must actively assert safety initiatives.	14) Actions to accomplish transformation will be tracked and rewarded.

Table 1. TQM points as applied to Blue Apron.

Post #4 in this series explores a Six Sigma approach.

Reference

Shelley, B. (2015, November 18). 7 Ways to improve Your Food Safety Culture [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.corvium.com/blog/7-ways-to-improve-your-food-safety-culture