He is worse than I am: The positive outlook of food handlers about foodborne disease

Abstract

The objective of this study was to identify and characterize the optimistic bias (OB) phenomenon in food handlers in relation to foodborne disease. This study examined 176 food handlers from different food businesses in Santos – Brazil, as follows: street food kiosks, beach kiosks, restaurants, hospitals, and school meal services. The individuals indicated their own risk and their peers’ risk of causing a foodborne disease through a 10cm linear scale anchored by descriptors of intensity ranging from “none” to “very high”. The difference between these risk perceptions characterized the OB score. Food handlers perceived themselves as less likely than their peers to transmit a foodborne disease to the consumer (p<0.01) and less likely than other food handlers to transmit foodborne disease to their friends and family members (p<0.01). A food handler believes that other food handlers are worse than he or she is. Environmental characteristics can empower food handlers and increase their OB, as observed among schools’ and hospitals’ food handlers. Understand food handlers’ perceptions can enable the discussion of different effective strategies of training.