Mindful Attention and Awareness Predict Self-Reported Food Safety Practices in the Food Service Industry

Abstract

We examine relationships between dispositional mindfulness, food safety knowledge, and self-reported food safety practices in the food service industry. Mindfulness refers to the state of being attentive to and aware of what is taking place in the present. Mindfulness is relevant to food service work because employees often work in hectic environments that can detract attention and awareness away from threats to food safety and protocols that help manage such threats. Food service workers (N = 428) from a wide variety of establishments were surveyed to gather their dispositional mindfulness as well as food safety knowledge and practices. Analyses reveal that mindfulness explains variance in self-reported food safety practices beyond that of food safety knowledge, with stronger relationships for workers having lower levels of food safety knowledge. Implications are considered within the context of an emerging literature that emphasizes the relationship between psychological constructs and food safety practices.