Investigating knowledge, practices, perceptions, attitudes and barriers associated with implementation of Food Safety Management Systems in Zimbabwe’s tea industry

Abstract

Many companies in the food supply chain are beginning to adopt Food Safety Management System (FSMS), however, the Zimbabwean tea industry has not taken a similar initiative. The purpose of this study was to investigate the knowledge, practices, attitudes, perceptions, and barriers associated with FSMS implementation in Zimbabwe’s tea industry. Questionnaires were distributed to respondents from the 8 tea factories belonging to the 3 major tea companies in Zimbabwe. A stratified sampling technique was used where respondents were categorised into managers, supervisors and general employees. Findings indicated that there is little government input into FSMS issues as evidenced by the lack of legislation and guidelines as well as inconsistent inspections. There was no significant difference (p > 0.05) between FSMS knowledge and years of work experience or the company worked for. Employee knowledge of FSMS was unsatisfactory, especially amongst the general workers who had about 50% knowledge. Supervisors and managers had 63% and 97% knowledge levels respectively. The tea industry FSMS average knowledge score of 64% was also not satisfactory. There was a very weak negative correlation between practices and food safety knowledge, r (155) = −.077, p = .337. There was also a negative, relationship between food safety practices and attitude towards FSMS implementation, r (155) = −0.511, p < 0.001. Lack of technical knowledge and skill of employees, employee resistance to change, insufficient knowledge of FSMS, lack of financial resources, lack of management commitment and inadequate infrastructure and facilities were among the top barriers to FSMS implementation cited by respondents. The study concluded that lack of knowledge is the main barrier to FSMS implementation in Zimbabwe’s tea industry as this has a bearing on practices and attitudes as well as being the key driver towards persuading management to act.