Food Safety Behavior

This book helps in Achieving food safety success which requires going beyond traditional training, testing, and inspectional approaches to managing risks. It requires a better understanding of the human dimensions of food safety. In the field of food safety today, much is documented about specific microbes, time/temperature processes, post-process contamination, and HACCP–things often called the hard sciences. There is not much published or discussed related to human behavior–often referred to as the “soft stuff.” However, looking at foodborne disease trends over the past few decades and published regulatory out-of-compliance rates of food safety risk factors, it’s clear that the soft stuff is still the hard stuff. Despite the fact that thousands of employees have been trained in food safety around the world, millions have been spent globally on food safety research, and countless inspections and tests have been performed at home and abroad, food safety remains a significant public health challenge. Why is that? Because to improve food safety, we must realize that it’s more than just food science; it’s the behavioral sciences, too. In fact, simply put, food safety equals behavior. This is the fundamental principle of this book. If you are trying to improve the food safety performance of a retail or food service establishment, an organization with thousands of employees, or a local community, what you are really trying to do is change people’s behavior. The ability to influence human behavior is well documented in the behavioral and social sciences. However, significant contributions to the scientific literature in the field of food safety are noticeably absent. This book will help advance the science by being the first significant collection of 50 proven behavioral science techniques, and be the first to show how these techniques can be applied to enhance employee compliance with desired food safety behaviors and make food safety the social norm in any organization.

Food safety awareness is at an all time high, new and emerging threats to the food supply are being recognized, and consumers are eating more and more meals prepared outside of the home. Accordingly, retail and foodservice establishments, as well as food producers at all levels of the food production chain, have a growing responsibility to ensure that proper food safety and sanitation practices are followed, thereby, safeguarding the health of their guests and customers. Achieving food safety success in this changing environment requires going beyond traditional training, testing, and inspectional approaches to managing risks. It requires a better understanding of organizational culture and the human dimensions of food safety. To improve the food safety performance of a retail or foodservice establishment, an organization with thousands of employees, or a local community, you must change the way people do things. You must change their behavior. In fact, simply put, food safety equals behavior. When viewed from these lenses, one of the most common contributing causes of food borne disease is unsafe behavior (such as improper hand washing, cross-contamination, or undercooking food). Thus, to improve food safety, we need to better integrate food science with behavioral science and use a systems-based approach to managing food safety risk. The importance of organizational culture, human behavior, and systems thinking is well documented in the occupational safety and health fields. However, significant contributions to the scientific literature on these topics are noticeably absent in the field of food safety.

This report examines changes in hamburger preparation behavior, the reasons for the changes, the medical costs saved as a result of the changes, and the implications for future food safety education.

Recent outbreaks of illnesses traced to contaminated sprouts and lettuce illustrate the holes that exist in the system for monitoring problems and preventing foodborne diseases. Although it is not solely responsible for ensuring the safety of the nation's food supply, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversees monitoring and intervention for 80 percent of the food supply. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's abilities to discover potential threats to food safety and prevent outbreaks of foodborne illness are hampered by impediments to efficient use of its limited resources and a piecemeal approach to gathering and using information on risks. Enhancing Food Safety: The Role of the Food and Drug Administration, a new book from the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council, responds to a congressional request for recommendations on how to close gaps in FDA's food safety systems. Enhancing Food Safety begins with a brief review of the Food Protection Plan (FPP), FDA's food safety philosophy developed in 2007. The lack of sufficient detail and specific strategies in the FPP renders it ineffectual. The book stresses the need for FPP to evolve and be supported by the type of strategic planning described in these pages. It also explores the development and implementation of a stronger, more effective food safety system built on a risk-based approach to food safety management. Conclusions and recommendations include adopting a risk-based decision-making approach to food safety; creating a data surveillance and research infrastructure; integrating federal, state, and local government food safety programs; enhancing efficiency of inspections; and more. Although food safety is the responsibility of everyone, from producers to consumers, the FDA and other regulatory agencies have an essential role. In many instances, the FDA must carry out this responsibility against a backdrop of multiple stakeholder interests, inadequate resources, and competing priorities. Of interest to the food production industry, consumer advocacy groups, health care professionals, and others, Enhancing Food Safety provides the FDA and Congress with a course of action that will enable the agency to become more efficient and effective in carrying out its food safety mission in a rapidly changing world.

How safe is our food supply? Each year the media report what appears to be growing concern related to illness caused by the food consumed by Americans. These food borne illnesses are caused by pathogenic microorganisms, pesticide residues, and food additives. Recent actions taken at the federal, state, and local levels in response to the increase in reported incidences of food borne illnesses point to the need to evaluate the food safety system in the United States. This book assesses the effectiveness of the current food safety system and provides recommendations on changes needed to ensure an effective science-based food safety system. Ensuring Safe Food discusses such important issues as: What are the primary hazards associated with the food supply? What gaps exist in the current system for ensuring a safe food supply? What effects do trends in food consumption have on food safety? What is the impact of food preparation and handling practices in the home, in food services, or in production operations on the risk of food borne illnesses? What organizational changes in responsibility or oversight could be made to increase the effectiveness of the food safety system in the United States? Current concerns associated with microbiological, chemical, and physical hazards in the food supply are discussed. The book also considers how changes in technology and food processing might introduce new risks. Recommendations are made on steps for developing a coordinated, unified system for food safety. The book also highlights areas that need additional study. Ensuring Safe Food will be important for policymakers, food trade professionals, food producers, food processors, food researchers, public health professionals, and consumers.

The goal of this book is to show how to build and manage a food safety department that is tasked with ensuring food safety within a food retail business. The experiences of the author as the head of Food and Product Safety at Chick-fil-A will be used as the model. Specifically, the book will discuss the specific components of a food safety program, the tactics needed to establish these components (forming the majority of the chapters), how to measure the success of each component, and how to influence the organization to ensure resources to support the program. The book will also focus on how to choose and work with the appropriate partners, validate the value to the business, and initiate the new component throughout the organization, including how to sustain the component within the program. Five features of this book that make it distinctive are: Most current “How to” book on leading a food safety department from the perspective of a respected national brand Provides the proper organization and methods to manage the work necessary to ensure food safety within the organization Provides the means to utilize risk-based decisions linked to business practices that accommodate a business analysis model Demonstrates step-by-step examples that can be used for continuous improvement in sustaining food safety responsibilities Provides examples on how to gain influence and obtain resources to support food safety responsibilities

Food Safety: Emerging Issues, Technologies and Systems offers a systems approach to learning how to understand and address some of the major complex issues that have emerged in the food industry. The book is broad in coverage and provides a foundation for a practical understanding in food safety initiatives and safety rules, how to deal with whole-chain traceability issues, handling complex computer systems and data, foodborne pathogen detection, production and processing compliance issues, safety education, and more. Recent scientific industry developments are written by experts in the field and explained in a manner to improve awareness, education and communication of these issues. Examines effective control measures and molecular techniques for understanding specific pathogens Presents GFSI implementation concepts and issues to aid in implementation Demonstrates how operation processes can achieve a specific level of microbial reduction in food Offers tools for validating microbial data collected during processing to reduce or eliminate microorganisms in foods