Measuring Food Safety Culture: A Systematic Review of Questionnaire Dimensions and Validation Practices

An organization's food safety culture (FSC) is increasingly being recognized as a key factor in its food safety performance. The reliable measurement of FSC is therefore crucial for identifying the strengths and weaknesses of food companies in food safety performance, enabling them to guide continuous improvement. While questionnaires are the most widely used tool for FSC assessment, existing instruments vary considerably in their scope, structure, and methodological rigor, which limits the consistency, comparability, and practical utility of these instruments. This review systematically examines all publicly available FSC questionnaires to consolidate the knowledge about their scope, content, and validation practices. Specifically, the review (1) outlines the characteristics of FSC studies and tracks the evolution of their questionnaires; (2) identifies and clusters the dimensions across instruments, highlighting commonalities and differences of the scope across questionnaires; (3) summarizes the items used within each clustered dimension to illustrate how FSC is operationalized; (4) examines all the validation methods employed; and (5) outlines opportunities for further development and application of FSC questionnaires. This article reveals significant diversity in theoretical frameworks, conceptual scope, and focus areas of detailed items, as well as notable gaps in validation practices. The findings provide a comprehensive overview of existing tools, offer practical guidance for researchers, industry practitioners, and regulators on selecting or developing robust questionnaires, and highlight the need for greater methodological rigor in the future development of FSC questionnaires.