Development of an Empirically Derived Measure of Food Safety Culture in Restaurants

A poor food safety culture has been described as an emerging risk factor for foodborne illness outbreaks, yet there has been little research on this topic in the retail food industry. The purpose of this study was to identify and validate conceptual domains around food safety culture and develop an assessment tool that can be used to assess food workers' perceptions of their restaurant's food safety culture. The study, conducted from March 2018 through March 2019, surveyed restaurant food workers for their level of agreement with 28 statements. We received 579 responses from 331 restaurants spread across eight different health department jurisdictions. Factor analysis and structural equation modeling supported a model composed of four primary constructs. The highest rated construct was Resource Availability (x¯=4.69, sd=0.57), which assessed the availability of resources to maintain good hand hygiene. The second highest rated construct was Employee Commitment (x¯=4.49, sd=0.62), which assessed workers' perceptions of their coworkers' commitment to food safety. The last two constructs were related to management. Leadership (x¯=4.28, sd=0.69) assessed the existence of food safety policies, training, and information sharing. Management Commitment (x¯=3.94, sd=1.05) assessed whether food safety was a priority in practice. Finally, the model revealed one higher-order construct, Worker Beliefs about Food Safety Culture (x¯=4.35, sd=0.53). The findings from this study can support efforts by the restaurant industry, food safety researchers, and health departments to examine the influence and effects of food safety culture within restaurants.