Foodborne illnesses are a continuing public health concern in the US, and the reduction of foodborne illnesses by 2010 is a major health goal for the federal government. A large number of these illnesses have been linked to restaurant operations.

The most common risk factors for foodborne diseases are improper holding times, cross contamination and poor personal hygiene. All of these factors can be controlled by both employers and employees in foodservice operations. Various studies have investigated the most prevalent practices that were out of compliance with the Food Code. To help meet their health goal, the US FDA has recommended that all operations have at least one member of staff who can demonstrate a knowledge of food safety or who has completed food safety certification training.

Training is an important aspect of any food safety programme. However, some findings have suggested that having the knowledge to perform proper food safety practices does not always transfer to actual behaviour. To design an effective training programme that is both useful to and used by restaurant managers, factors underlying their intention to train employees need to be explored. The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TpB) is used to examine behavioural intention and the underlying cognitive beliefs of intention, namely attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control.

A study by Roberts and Barrett¹ investigated the beliefs, attitudes, subjective norms and perceptions of control of restaurant managers about offering food safety training to employees. A total of 237 responses were obtained from independent and chain restaurant managers, with and without food safety certification. The results generally indicated that intention to offer food safety training was high, with a positive attitude to food safety, especially among certified managers compared with those without certification. However, there were important barriers such as employee scheduling, lack of management time and off-site opportunities, which need to be addressed.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
¹ Roberts, KR; Barrett, B (2009). Behavioral, normative and control beliefs impacts on the intention to offer food safety training to employees. Food Protection Trends 29 (1) 21-30.

Please click on the logo below to view an abstract of this paper from FSTA Direct.