Food safety knowledge and climate in the university canteens of three European countries
https://doi.org/10.4081/ijfs.2023.10580
Accepted: 24 May 2023
HTML: 4
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
The association of food safety knowledge and climate with gender, education level, length of employment, food safety training, and professional role was measured using a 15-item food safety climate survey and a 20-item food safety questionnaire on a sample of 263 employees from 19 small and medium-sized university canteens in Croatia, Hungary, and Portugal. The relationship between knowledge and climate and the demographic determinants of both variables were examined. Food safety knowledge was inadequate (45.5% of correct responses), while perceptions of food safety, as measured by the food safety climate survey, were positive (2.69 out of a maximum of 3.00). The perception of resources in canteens was the least favorable across all countries. Leaders did not exhibit better food safety knowledge or perceptions. Food safety climate and knowledge were significantly positively correlated and influenced by training. Perceptions of food safety compared to employee knowledge levels indicated that some employees were overly optimistic about food safety risks. Therefore, food safety knowledge and food safety climate should be assessed in parallel, and both could be improved through ongoing training of employees, especially leaders.
Al-Akash H, Abu Arrah A, Bhatti F, Maabreh R, Abu Arrah R, 2022. The effect of food safety training program on food safety knowledge and practices in hotels’ and hospitals’ food services. Ital J Food Saf 11:9914.
De Boeck E, Jacxsens L, Bollaerts M, Vlerick P, 2015. Food safety climate in food processing organizations: development and validation of a self-assessment tool. Trends Food Sci Technol 46:242-51.
De Boeck E, Mortier A, Jacxsens L, Dequidt L, Vlerick P, 2017. Towards an extended food safety culture model: studying the moderating role of burnout and jobstress, the mediating role of food safety knowledge and motivation in the relation between food safety climate and food safety behavior. Trends Food Sci Technol 62:202-14.
Dufour C, 2011. Application of EC regulation no. 2073/2005 regarding listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat foods in retail and catering sectors in Europe. Food Control 22:1491-4.
EFSA, 2021. The European Union one health 2020 zoonoses report. EFSA J 2021 19:e06971.
Ellis JD, Arendt SW, Strohbehn CH, Meyer J, Paez P, 2010. Varying influences of motivation factors on employees' likelihood to perform safe food handling practices because of demographic differences. J Food Prot 73:2065-71.
European Commission, 2021. Regulation (EC) no 2021/382 amending the annexes to regulation (EC) no 852/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the hygiene of foodstuffs as regards food allergen management, redistribution of food and food safety culture. In: Official Journal, L 74/3, 03/03/2021.
Gruenfeldova J, Domijan K, Walsh C, 2019. A study of food safety knowledge, practice and training among food handlers in Ireland. Food Control 105:131-40.
McIntyre L, Vallaster L, Wilcott L, Henderson SB, Kosatsky T, 2013. Evaluation of food safety knowledge, attitudes and self-reported hand washing practices in foodsafe trained and untrained food handlers in British Columbia, Canada. Food Control 30:150-6.
Moreb NA, Priyadarshini A, Jaiswal AK, 2017. Knowledge of food safety and food handling practices amongst food handlers in the Republic of Ireland. Food Control 80:341-9.
Pichler J, Ziegler J, Aldrian U, Allerberger F, 2014. Evaluating levels of knowledge on food safety among food handlers from restaurants and various catering businesses in Vienna, Austria 2011/2012. Food Control 35:33-40.
Rossi MSC, Stedefeld E, Da Cunha DT, De Rosso DD, 2017. Food safety knowledge, optimistic bias and risk perception among food handlers in institutional food services. Food Control 73:681-8.
Santos MJ, Nogueira JR, Patarata L, Mayan O, 2008. Knowledge levels of food handlers in portuguese school canteens and their self-reported behaviour towards food safety. Int J Environ Health Res 18:387-401.
Sharman N, Wallace CA, Jespersen L, 2020. Terminology and the understanding of culture, climate, and behavioural change - impact of organisational and human factors on food safety management. Trends Food Sci Technol 96:13-20.
Smigić N, Djekic I, Martins ML, Rocha A, Sidiropoulou N, Kalogianni EP, 2016. The level of food safety knowledge in food establishments in three European countries. Food Control 63:187-94.
Tomasevic I, Kovačević DB, Jambrak AR, Zsolt S, Dalle Zotte A, Martinović A, Prodanov M, Sołowiej B, Sirbu A, Subić J, Roljević S, Semenova A, Kročko M, Duckova V, Getya A, Kravchenko O, Djekic I, 2020. Comprehensive insight into the food safety climate in central and eastern Europe. Food Control 114:107238.
Toth A, Bittsanszky A, Illes CB, Dunay A, 2014. Improving knowledge, technology and food safety in school catering system in hungary. In: Dermol V, Širca NT, Dakovic G (eds). Human capital without borders: knowledge and learning for quality of life - proceedings of the management, knowledge and learning international conference, 2014 Jun 25-27, Portoroz, Slovenia. Bangkok, Thailand: ToKnowPress. pp 1129-37.
Tóth AJ, Koller Z, Illés CB, Bittsánszky A, 2017. Development of conscious food handling in hungarian school cafeterias. Food Control 73:644-9.
Copyright (c) 2023 the Author(s)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
PAGEPress has chosen to apply the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) to all manuscripts to be published.
Downloads
Citations
