Beyond Food Inspections- What Motivates Food Businesses to Ensure Food Safety

22.feb.10
Dubai International Food Safety Conference
Ben Chapman

Inspection has historically been the most prevalent performance measurement used by the food service industry. It is assumed by many that achieving positive inspection results provide motivation to business operators to implement foodborne illness risk-reduction practices. In reality, there are other factors driving risk reduction including risk of being linked to an outbreak; poor reputation; and, the threat of litigation. Weekly food safety infosheets (www.foodsafetyinfosheets.com), focusing on motivating factors are used as a practice-changing tool by many firms in the retail and foodservice industry. Food safety infosheets have been designed to impact the actions of food handlers by utilizing four attributes culled from education, behavioural science and communication literature: surprising messages in communication; putting actions and their consequence in context; generating discussion within the target audiences’ environments and using verbal narrative, or storytelling, as a message delivery device. While many training packages exist, seldom are evaluated for behavior change impacts. Of those that are evaluated, the majority of evaluations are based on self-reported data which are wrought with problems of reliability and literature shows that while food handlers may report the intent to perform safe food handling practices, actions are not always realized. Given the discrepancies between inspection results, individuals’ recall and actual behaviours, a focus on the results of observational studies will be provided. This workshop will provide you with tools to help identify and manage food safety risks in food service and support a culture of food safety in your business.