What Is Really within Our “Control”?

I ask because, as I sit here in the middle of prime gardening season, I certainly am NOT in control of the weather. And here in Massachusetts, it has rained for at least 2 weeks, maybe longer. It’s July but feels like we reverted to spring. My snow peas are in heaven, but my tomatoes and peppers are wondering where the warm weather went.

I’m also not in control of the aphids that are infesting my beach plum trees, although the ladybugs are thriving. I can control how to treat the trees (for now, I’m letting nature take its course) but not the presence of the pests.

Isn’t that how it works in food safety? There are critical control points—steps where food safety interventions have been determined to be required—which, if properly validated and verified, should contribute to the level of control over the process at hand and reduce the identified hazard (I’d like to say eliminate, but as there is no such thing as zero risk—a topic for another day—I can’t). There are prerequisite programs, such as pest control, sanitation, and training, that when properly designed and implemented can also offer a certain level of control in the food facility. Our ability to control centers on the decisions made about systems and processes and schedules. We can control who does what and where and when it gets done. We decide the layout of the plant, which equipment to buy, whether we send samples out for testing or use our own in-house lab; all these things, I would argue, trick us into thinking we are in control. But are we really?

We must realize, though, that no system is perfect and that our level of control is questionable. Consider, for example, human behavior: We can offer the best training, prioritize a food safety culture that is modeled throughout the organization, engage and empower employees, and still have a food safety issue. Food safety relies on risk assessments and trusting in the systems designed to lower that risk and in the science on which the systems are based, ultimately tipping the scales of control back to us.