Food Protection Trends - January 2009 - 22

in 2000 (21) found that 26% of quickservice restaurants and 40% of full service restaurants were out of compliance with one or more identified standards. Both types of operations were primarily out of compliance for holding time/temperature, personal hygiene, and contaminated equipment/protection from contamination. The 2004 follow-up study by the FDA (22) found that both quick and full-service restaurants had improved, but not to the level of institutional foodservice operations. The FDA has set a goal of a compliance rate of 81% for quick service and 80% for full service restaurants by the year 2010. To assist in achieving this goal, the Food and Drug Administration has recommended that all operations have at least one person on staff during normal business hours who can demonstrate knowledge of food safety or who has successfully completed food safety certification training. Food safety training programs have been found to increase sanitation inspection scores (14, 24), the microbiological quality of food (12), and self-reported food safety practices (26). However, other research has found the opposite to be true, indicating that even when foodservice employees are trained in proper food handling and have the knowledge to perform proper food safety practices, the knowledge does not always transfer to actual behavior (9, 10, 24, 30, 32). A study completed by Roberts, et al. (30) conducted a pre- and post-test survey and observation of foodservice employees to determine if food safety training improves overall food safety knowledge and behaviors. The results indicated that knowledge and behavior increased significantly for handwashing (P ≤ .001), but neither knowledge nor behaviors improved for time and temperature abuse or thermometer use. The FDA explored the impact of certification on the control of foodborne illness risk factors within foodservice establishments (22). In full-service restaurants, personal hygiene and protecting contaminated equipment were significantly better for operations with a certified manager. For quick-service operations, statistically significant differences were noted in two categories, improper holding/time and temperature and protecting contaminated equipment; the certified managers outperformed the non-certified with regard to those opera- tions. However, many basic food safety practices, including purchasing food from safe sources, proper cooking, and chemical control, did not increase significantly. Training is an important aspect of any overall food safety program. Therefore, managers must train their employees accordingly, which includes allowing them to attend or participate in food safety training classes. ServSafe®, sponsored by the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation, is the most widely used food safety training program. The National Restaurant Association has estimated that approximately two million food handlers have been trained in ServSafe®, which is equal to less than 16% of the 12.8 million employed in the restaurant industry. Although this indicates that many foodservice employees have not been trained, no research to date has been conducted to explain managers’ beliefs about implementing training or providing training for their employees. To design an effective training program that not only is useful to restaurant managers but would also be used by them, it is necessary to explore the factors that underlie their intention to train employees, including the impact that manager food safety certification has on the intention to train employees and the differences in chain and independent restaurants, because training may be different between the groups. One way to explore behavioral intention and the cognitive beliefs underlying the formation of intention is through the use of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TpB). The TpB states that behavior intention is based on a person’s attitude (one’s evaluation of the behavior), subjective norm (one’s perception that those who are important to the person think that he/she should or should not perform the behavior), and perceived behavioral control (one’s ability to perform a behavior or barriers which would prevent one from performing it) (2, 5). Attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control can be assessed using direct measures that ask respondents to rate each overall construct on a set of scales (3). These also can be measured indirectly, by asking respondents specifically about their beliefs. By utilizing predictor variables through the beliefs subjects hold, it is possible to understand why people hold certain overall attitudes, subjective norms, and perceptions of behavioral control (4). Additionally, when belief-based measures are used, reliability is not a concern, because predictor variables are combined into a single composite score that represents the construct (4). The goal of this research was to explore the beliefs of restaurant managers have about offering food safety training to employees, by determining the antecedents of behavioral intention (beliefs, attitudes, subjective norms, and perceptions of control). Specific objectives were to (1) determine what the beliefs, attitudes, subjective norms, and perceptions of control managers have about offering food safety training to their employees; (2) determine if the beliefs, attitudes, subjective norms, and perceptions of control differ based on ownership structure (chain or independent); and (3) determine if certification status (certified vs. non-certified) has an impact on the beliefs, attitudes, subjective norms, and perceptions of control of the managers. METHODOLOGy Sample Commercial foodservice operations in the state of Kansas were the targeted population for this study. A listing of operations licensed to sell food within the state was obtained from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. Of the 7,558 operations licensed, 5,468 operations were selected as meeting the predefined criteria of being a commercial foodservice operation. Of those, 50 operations were chosen for a pilot test. From the remaining, approximately 25% (1,347 operations) were selected to provide a final sample size large enough to ensure that the data were valid and reliable. Utilizing online research to determine which operations did not meet the commercial foodservice classification, of the sample was further refined which removed 26 operations, yielding a final sample of 1,321 operations. Data collection A telephone survey was utilized to collect the data. The 1,321 operations were divided into seven different groups; each group of 188 was contacted over the course of the seven-week study. Advance letters introducing managers of the operations to the purpose of the study, their rights in the research process, 22 FOOD PROTECTION TRENDS | JANUARY 2009

Food Protection Trends - January 2009

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