Antecedents and outcomes of restaurant employees’ food safety intervention behaviors

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to investigate restaurant employee behaviors and their likelihood of intervening when witnessing food safety threats.Design/methodology/approachA mixed method was used for this study with the focus group interview and survey questionnaire. A total of eight focus groups ranging in number of participants from to 6 to 12 were asked to respond to presented scenarios that depicted restaurant employees committing food safety risk behaviors and threats in the restaurant environment that would present food safety risks such as out-of-stock bathroom supplies, dirty tables in the restaurant dining area, employee personal hygiene issues and unclean production equipment. These participants were also asked to complete a draft of the survey that would later be edited and distributed to the sample population.FindingsResults suggest that social norms and perceived severity of threats impact the likelihood that restaurant employees will intervene. Implications for academics and practitioners are discussed.Originality/valueThis study was special as it provides a synthetic viewpoint that considers how service organizations can work to do a better job of interviewing employees before starting their jobs about their beliefs and personal practices of food safety at home, their previous work in the restaurant industry and food safety culture that they may have worked in before, as well as increasing the communication in restaurants to build a food safety culture. These practices can help to lower risks to the public regarding food safety and can help to build relationship trust in the brands that we all love to indulge in when dining out.

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A structural modeling to understand the relationship among food safety knowledge, attitude, and self-reported HACCP practices in restaurant employees in Bangladesh

10.21203/rs.3.rs-196027/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Md. Jahid Hasan ◽

Rayhan Uddin ◽

G. M. Rabiul Islam

Keyword(s):

Food Safety ◽

Safety Concern ◽

Control Point ◽

Food Poisoning ◽

Equation Modeling ◽

Positive Correlation ◽

Attitudes And Practices ◽

Critical Control Point ◽

Restaurant Employees ◽

Safety Knowledge

Abstract Background: Nowadays most people have their meals outside of their homes and largely depend on the restaurants’ made food. Consequently consumers exposed themselves to risk and become vulnerable to illness caused by food. Unsafe food preparation and handling by restaurants’ workers have made food safety a concern for public health. The study was aimed to examine the relationships among food safety knowledge, attitude, and hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP) practices in restaurant employees in Bangladesh. Methods: A total of 360 employees from 120 restaurants participated in a face-to-face interview through a structured questionnaire comprising four sections: demographic characteristics, food safety knowledge, attitudes and practices. The mean scores for each survey item were calculated and used in structural equation modeling (SEM), designed to assess interrelationships among the three sections related to food safety. Results: Participants obtained a correct average score of 53.32% in food safety knowledge, with the highest and lowest correct scores in good hygiene practices (GHPs) and HACCP practices, respectively. The highest score in the attitude section belonged to “self-improvement”, followed by “food safety concern”. A negative correlation was observed between knowledge with practices, knowledge with attitudes, and a positive correlation was observed between practices with attitudes. A significant positive correlation was observed between HACCP practices with shelf improvement (r = 0.54, p < 0.05) and the knowledge toward food poisoning with GHP practices (r = 0.55, p < 0.05). Self-improvement and food safety concern are negatively correlated with food poisoning, GHP, and HACCP practice. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that the restaurant employees in Bangladesh often have lack of knowledge regarding food safety and HACCP. There is an immediate need for education and training among restaurant employees in order to improve knowledge and attitude on safe HACCP practice.

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Survey on Perception and Performance of Restaurant Employees on Food Safety Management against Climate Change in Seoul, Korea

Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life ◽

10.17495/easdl.2014.06.24.3.432 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 24 (3) ◽

Author(s):

Soon-Young Jung

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Food Safety ◽

Safety Management ◽

Restaurant Employees ◽

And Performance

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Information, Incentives, and Government Intervention for Food Safety

Annual Review of Resource Economics ◽

10.1146/annurev-resource-100516-053346 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 83-103

Author(s):

Sebastien Pouliot ◽

H. Holly Wang

Keyword(s):

Food Safety ◽

Economic Losses ◽

Costs And Benefits ◽

Foodborne Illnesses ◽

The World ◽

Important Health ◽

Safety Intervention ◽

Safe Food ◽

Important Health Issue ◽

New Research

Foodborne illnesses are an important health issue throughout the world. Food safety incidents cause significant economic losses in a multitude of ways, including discomfort, pain, loss in productivity, and death. This review examines issues in the economics of food safety. We first discuss the analysis of costs and benefits of food safety intervention and their usefulness in guiding policy making, and then look into the information problems that dampen the market incentives for the provision of food safety. Building on this discussion, we examine how a government can intervene in food safety either through direct intervention or by increasing the incentives for firms to supply safe food and then look briefly into private initiatives in food safety. We conclude by inviting new research that exploits new estimation techniques and newly available data.

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Inactivation of Avirulent Yersinia pestis in Beef Bologna by Gamma Irradiation†

Journal of Food Protection ◽

10.4315/0362-028x.jfp-10-421 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 74 (4) ◽

pp. 627-630 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

CHRISTOPHER H. SOMMERS ◽

BRENDAN A. NIEMIRA

Keyword(s):

Food Safety ◽

Ionizing Radiation ◽

Yersinia Pestis ◽

Three Dimensional ◽

Effect Of Temperature ◽

Processed Meats ◽

Log Reduction ◽

Effective Technology ◽

Safety Intervention ◽

The Mean

Yersinia pestis, a psychrotrophic pathogen capable of growth at refrigeration temperatures, can cause pharyngeal and gastrointestinal plague in humans that consume contaminated foods. Because Y. pestis is listed as a select agent for food safety and defense, evaluation of food safety intervention technologies for inactivation of this pathogen is needed. Ionizing (gamma) radiation is a safe and effective intervention technology that can inactivate pathogens in raw and processed meats, produce, and seafood. In this study, we investigated the effect of temperature on the ability of ionizing radiation to inactivate avirulent Y. pestis in beef bologna. The mean (±standard error of the mean) radiation D10-values (the radiation dose needed to inactivate 1 log unit or 90% of the population of a microorganism) for avirulent Y. pestis suspended in beef bologna samples were 0.20 (±0.01), 0.22 (±0.01), 0.25 (±0.02), 0.31 (±0.01), 0.35 (±0.01), and 0.37 (±0.01) kGy at temperatures of 5, 0, −5, −10, −15, and −20°C, respectively. When incorporated into a three-dimensional mesh, the predictive model followed a parabolic fit (R2 = 0.84), where the log reduction = −0.264 − (0.039 × temp) − (3.833 × dose) − (0.0013 × temp2) − (0.728 × dose2). These results indicate that ionizing radiation would be an effective technology for control of Y. pestis in ready-to-eat fine emulsion sausage products.

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