Food Protection Trends - January/February 2023 - 62

Safety culture emerged as a vague concept as many
researchers provided varied views on what constitutes an
organizational safety culture (17). However, food safety
culture has been defined as the shared and prevailing
values, beliefs, and attitudes governing an organization's
food safety behavior (8, 15, 39). Food safety culture can be
viewed as how employees think about food safety and their
routinely practiced behavior in their organization (59).
When an ethnic restaurant employs people of a single ethnic
group, their culture may overlap with the business culture
(16). The organizational safety culture could shape the
employees' behavior by acting as a guide that directs their
behavior (17). Therefore, the bottom line for improving food
safety is promoting behavioral change and developing an
organizational food safety culture (60).
The food safety culture is concerned with promoting
proper food safety practices to a standard way of doing
business by establishing compliance among all employees
(30). In a study that explored the causes of poor hand
hygiene of caterers, it was suggested that the cause of most
foodborne illnesses lies in a poor food safety culture (6). In
addition, it was found that food safety culture varies between
commercial and noncommercial foodservice operations
based on organizational support (52). Therefore, the
importance of changing the focus of food safety training to
changing employees' behavior and the organization's culture
is paramount (27). Previous studies in different foodservice
settings reported mixed results regarding the relationship
between demographic characteristics (i.e., age, years of
experience, ethnicity, education, and employment status)
and food safety culture (9, 30, 52).
Previous research highlighted the importance of developing
a food safety culture to promote the effectiveness of
food safety risk management (39, 59). Although improper
holding temperature, poor personal hygiene, and cross-contamination
have been commonly identified as the most
common risk factors for outbreaks of foodborne illnesses
(55), a negative food safety culture has been implicated as
an impediment to proper food safety practices (11, 38).
Environmental support as a component of the organizational
culture can help promote appropriate food safety behavior
(15). For instance, lack of resources (e.g., financial, supply,
and time) have been frequently cited among the barriers to
ensuring safe food handling practices (10, 47). Low priority
or attention to food safety, inadequate sick leave policies, and
lack of organizational commitment to food safety are some
precursors of a negative food safety culture (56). However,
a positive food safety culture features the prevailing atmosphere
where people consider food safety a foremost priority
(5). A strong food safety culture helps guide daily decisions,
actions, and behaviors, ensuring safe food practices are used
in an operation (44).
A profound understanding of what a food safety culture
constitutes could support positive food safety behaviors.
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Food Protection Trends January/February
Even though there is no explicit agreement on the dimensions
of a food safety culture (53), previous research identified
a range of elements of food safety culture, including
management systems, leadership, commitment, knowledge,
employees' confidence in the food safety management system
in place, risk awareness and perception, communication,
accountability, work environment, values and behavior, and
work pressure (1, 15, 30, 39, 53, 58, 60). Several studies have
used various approaches and tools to measure food safety culture,
including questionnaires and maturity models (19, 30,
53). However, food safety culture research is fragmented and
needs to be developed and to follow a holistic approach to
account for the several determinants of a food safety culture
(e.g., an organization's food risks and context), organizational
and administrative characteristics, facilities characteristics,
and demographic characteristics (34).
It has been argued that self-administered questionnaires
are unreliable for measuring organizational safety culture and
suggested that an audit tool be used instead (18). Nevertheless,
given the complexity of food safety culture, its time
reliance, and context-based specificity, other researchers
have acknowledged the importance of using manageable
assessment tools, like questionnaires, to measure food safety
culture (34, 53).
It is essential to tailor food safety training programs
to address cultural misconceptions of workers in ethnic
restaurants, which may lead to improper food safety
behaviors (32). Further research was recommended to
explore the ethnic background of employees and the role it
may play in food safety (43).
Several studies have been conducted on food safety
practices and food safety knowledge in ethnic restaurants
(41, 42, 43). However, to the researchers' knowledge, no
study has been shown to assess the food safety culture in
ethnic restaurants and compare the culture of independent
and chain-operated ethnic restaurants. Therefore, this
study aimed to assess the food safety culture in Mexican
and Chinese restaurants. Specific objectives were to (1)
assess the food safety culture within Mexican and Chinese
restaurants, (2) compare food handlers in independent
and chain Mexican and Chinese restaurants based on their
demographics and their perception of food safety culture in
their workplace, and (3) identify differences in food handlers'
perception of food safety culture based on the operational
characteristics in independent versus chain Mexican and
Chinese restaurants.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Study design and sampling
The minimum sample size estimated to achieve a 95%
confidence interval with ±0.06 margin of error was 210
food handlers (G*Power, version 3.1.9.2). To allow for
comparison of the participants, a stratified random sample
of 300 food handlers was targeted for data collection. The
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