By Felicia Loo, Food Safety Consultant & Trainer

One of the most common frustrations I hear from plant managers and QA professionals in food manufacturing is this: “We have a solid allergen program, but people just don’t follow it.”

It’s a painful problem. You spend hours building the system, updating procedures, training staff, reviewing labels, redesigning storage, validating cleaning—and then you walk the floor and see allergens handled the wrong way, labels unchecked, tools out of place, or changeovers rushed.

It’s not just annoying. When people don’t follow your allergen program, you are putting consumers at risk, exposing the plant to potential recalls, and creating regulatory and customer-audit vulnerabilities that can cost you business.

And yet, it keeps happening. Why?

The truth is, non-compliance rarely comes from laziness. It usually comes from deeper, system-level reasons that haven’t been addressed.

Reason 1: They Don’t Truly Understand the Risk

Many employees have never seen an allergic reaction. They’ve never watched a parent panic because their child accidentally consumed an undeclared allergen. They’ve never witnessed a recall devastate a brand’s reputation.

So when they see “allergen control” on a poster or a SOP, it doesn’t hit emotionally. It becomes just another rule—easy to forget when production is busy or when shortcuts feel faster.

Without understanding the human consequence, people underestimate the risk. And when the risk feels small, compliance feels optional.

The result? A well-designed allergen program that looks perfect on paper—but falls apart on the floor.

Reason 2: The Program Is Too Complicated for Real-Life Operations

Sometimes your allergen program makes perfect sense to the QA team—but feels overwhelming to operators.

If procedures are overly technical, written for auditors instead of frontline workers, or require more steps than the production flow allows, compliance drops. Operators default to what feels workable. They skip steps not out of rebellion, but out of practicality.

A program that isn’t designed with real operational constraints becomes a program that employees can’t realistically follow.
And when a process feels impossible, people take shortcuts—shortcuts that lead to allergen cross-contact, mislabeling, or sanitation failures.

Reason 3: Training Is Informative, But Not Transformative

Many allergen trainings focus on what to do, but not why it matters. They deliver information but don’t create connection.

Employees remember stories, not slides. They remember seeing the emotion behind an allergen mistake, not reading a bullet point about it. They remember when a trainer speaks to their reality—not at them.

If allergen training feels like a formality instead of a responsibility, retention drops and old habits take over.
Training should inspire action—not compliance through fear, but compliance through understanding.

Reason 4: The System Doesn’t Reinforce Accountability

Allergen compliance needs reinforcement, not just instruction. A program without follow-up becomes a program of “suggestions.”

When supervisors don’t model the right behavior, operators follow their lead.
When non-compliance isn’t addressed consistently, it becomes normalized.
When good behavior isn’t recognized, motivation fades.

Accountability isn’t about discipline—it’s about clarity.
People need to know the expectations, see them modeled, and understand the consequences of not meeting them.

Reason 5: The Program Has Hidden Gaps People Are Trying to “Work Around”

Sometimes employees don’t follow your allergen program because it has gaps YOU can’t see—but they deal with every day.

Maybe there aren’t enough allergen-dedicated tools.
Maybe the storage layout makes compliance inconvenient.
Maybe production scheduling changes constantly, so the allergen sequence doesn’t work.
Maybe sanitation struggles to keep up with equipment challenges.

Employees often develop workarounds out of necessity. But those workarounds introduce risk. And unless you’re on the floor regularly, those small adjustments can remain invisible until they cause a major issue—mislabeling, cross-contact, or even a recall.

The Core Truth: People Don’t Follow Programs They Don’t Believe In

Successful allergen programs aren’t built on rules—they’re built on alignment. When people understand the risk, feel supported by the system, and see leaders modeling expectations, compliance becomes natural.

When they don’t, even the strongest allergen program will crumble under real-world pressure. And the consequences are serious: consumers can get hurt, regulatory agencies can get involved, customers may lose trust, and you can face significant recall exposure.

This is why allergen programs that “fail on the floor” are not people problems—they’re system problems. And system problems can be fixed.

You Don’t Have to Fix This Alone

If your allergen controls look good on paper but fall apart in practice, you don’t have a discipline problem—you have a design, communication, and alignment problem.

I help food manufacturers troubleshoot these gaps by:
– Rebuilding allergen programs around real operational flow
– Translating requirements into simple, clear, floor-friendly systems
– Strengthening training so it actually transforms behavior
– Identifying hidden barriers operators never voice
– Ensuring compliance protects consumers, not just audits

Whether you’re preparing for SQF or HACCP certification, struggling with recurring allergen incidents, or facing team pushback, you don’t have to navigate this alone. Together, we can rebuild your allergen program so people actually follow it—every shift, every run, every day.

If you’d like support diagnosing why your team isn’t following your allergen system, I’m here to help.

Book a consultation: https://tidycal.com/sfpmconsulting/strategy-call