A survey of food safety training in small food manufacturers

Abstract

A survey of food safety training was conducted in small food manufacturing firms in South Wales. Structured interviews with managers were used to collect information on the extent and level of food hygiene and HACCP training and the manager's perceptions of and attitude towards training. All the businesses surveyed had undertaken some hygiene training. Hygiene induction programmes were often unstructured and generally unrecorded. Low-risk production workers were usually trained on the job whilst high-care production staff were trained in hygiene to Level 1. Part-time and temporary staff received less training than full-timers. Regular refresher training was undertaken by less than half of the sample. None of the businesses made use of National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) qualifications. Over half of the managers/senior staff had undertaken higher levels of hygiene training and half had attended a HACCP course. Managers trained the workforce to operate the HACCP system. Formal training-related activities were generally only found in the larger businesses. Few of the manufacturers had made use of training consultants. Managers held positive attitudes towards training but most regarded it as operating expense rather than an investment. Resource poverty, in terms of time and money was perceived to be a major inhibiting factor to continual, systematic training.