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tion. Managers placed emphasis on the opinions of health inspectors, customers, supervisors, and long-term employees and were least concerned about the opinions of short-term employees. There were few differences in beliefs between chain and independent operations, but several differences in beliefs between certified and non-certified managers. Certification appears to help managers fully appreciate the impact of food safety training and the effect it can have on the operation. The FDA (19, 20) has recommended that states adopt a requirement that a person in charge of a restaurant is knowledgeable about food safety and about the relationship of food handling practices to foodborne illnesses, but not all states have adopted this policy. Currently, the State of Kansas does not mandate food safety training for food handlers. However, this study illustrates that many positive changes occur in manager attitudes and important referents once certification has taken place and verifies the importance of certification as an important tool in food safety training. Sanitarians can use the results of this study in training and inspections to assist managers in becoming more aware of the need for employee training. It is imperative that sanitarians discuss the importance of food safety training for employees with the management team and stress the need for employee training and its impacts on overall food safety practices. During training, food safety educators should reinforce the importance of serving safe food to customers and maintaining the operation’s reputation as primary reasons for providing employee training. Sanitarians also may want to discuss and reinforce these issues with managers during the inspection process. For example, knowing that managers perceive a lack of training materials as an issue, sanitarians can provide managers with information on this topic. Additionally, knowing that managers value the opinions of the health inspectors, customers, long-term employees, and supervisors, sanitarians can stress the importance of training and the relationship between safe food and increased customer satisfaction, the operations’ reputation, food quality, and development of long-term employees. Sanitarians should discuss food safety training with owners and general and regional managers to assure that they are stressing food safety training with the store-level management team. Sanitarians and food safety educators may want to schedule shorter, more frequent food safety training sessions at varying times to reduce the barriers related to employee scheduling. One limitation of this study is that the sample is limited to commercial restaurant operations in Kansas. Thus, the results cannot be generalized to other foodservice systems or to commercial restaurant operations in other states. Future studies could seek to understand the beliefs of restaurant managers in multiple parts of the United States and use region or location as a basis for comparison. Results could then be compared to state food safety programs in an attempt to uncover methods of food safety training that restaurant managers would be more apt to utilize. Other studies could seek to use the TpB with managers in noncommercial foodservice operations. Another limitation is the response rate. Even though 237 responses were usable and adequate for data analysis, this represents only 17.9% of the sampling population and is a relatively small number. Non-response bias is also a potential limitation. Managers who participated in the study might be more responsive to food safety training than nonparticipants were, and therefore responses may be biased. Another limitation of this research is that it does not explore the relationship between behavioral intention and behavior. Although the restaurant managers rated behavioral intention positively, the link between behavior and behavioral intention was not explored in this study. More in-depth research is needed to explore this relationship, because although restaurant managers perceive training as important, anecdotal evidence indicates that managers are not conducting training for employees. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project was partially funded through a grant from the National Integrated Food Safety Initiative (grant No. 2004-51110-02170) of the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, US Department of Agriculture. REFERENCES 1. Ajzen, I. 1985. From intentions to actions: A theory of planned behavior. (pp. 11–39). In J. Kuhl & J. Beckmann (eds.). Action control: From cognition to behavior. Springer-Verlag, NY. 2. Ajzen, I. 1991.The theory of planned behavior. Organizational behavior and human decision processes 50(2):179–211. 3. Ajzen, I. 2002. Behavioral intentions based on the theory of planned behavior. (http://www.unix.oit.umass. edu/~aizen/pdf/tpb.intervention. pdf). 4. Ajzen, I. 2002. Constructing a TpB Questionnaire: Conceptual and methodological considerations. (http://www-unix.oit.umass. edu/~aizen/pdf/tpb.measurement. pdf). 5. Ajzen, I, and M. Fishbein. 1980. Understanding attitudes and predicting social behavior. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. 6. Bean, N. H., J. S. Goulding, C. Lao, and F. J. Angulo. 1996. Surveillance for foodborne-disease outbreaks – United States, 1988–1992. MMWR. 45(SS-5):1–55. 7. Buzby, J., P. Frenzen, and B. A. Rasco. 2001. Product liability and food safety: The resolution of food poisoning laws. In N. Hooker & E. A. Murano (eds.). Interdisciplinary food safety research. (pp. 121–137). CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL. 8. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2000. Surveillance for foodborne disease outbreaks— United States, 1993–1997. MMWR. 49(SS-1):22–26. 9. Casey, R., and C. Cook. (1979). Assessment of a food service management sanitation course. J. Env. Hlth. 41(5):281–284. 10. Clingman, C. D. (1976). Ohio evaluated effects of food certification training. J. Env. Hlth. 38(4):235–236. 11. C o c h r a n - Ya n t i s , D. , P. B e l o, J. Giampaoli, L. McProud, V. Everly, and J. Gans. 1996. Attitudes and knowledge of food safety among Santa Clara County, California restaurant operators. J. Foodsvc. Sys. 9:117–128. 12. C o h e n , E . , A . R e i c h e l . , a n d Z. Schwartz. 2001. On the efficacy of an in-house foodsanitation training program: Statistical measurements and practical conclusions. J. Hosp. Tourism Res. 25(1): 5–16. 13. Collins, J. E. 1997. Impact of changing lifestyles on the emergence/ reemergence of foodborne pathogens. Emerg. Infect. Dis. 3:471–479. JANUARY 2009 | FOOD PROTECTION TRENDS 29

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Food Protection Trends - January 2009

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