The existence of optimistic bias about foodborne disease by food handlers and its association with training participation and food safety performance

Abstract

A positive outlook regarding future events, in which individuals find themselves less likely than others to experience negative events, is called optimistic bias (OB). The aims of this study were: 1. To ascertain the existence and measure the OB phenomenon in food handlers in relation to foodborne disease and 2. To examine the association of OB with food handlers' risk perceptions, knowledge, attitudes, self-reported practices, training participation, food safety performance of the establishments and microbiological analysis. This study examined different food businesses in Santos city, in Brazil, as follows: street food kiosks, beach kiosks, restaurants, hospitals, and school meal services. The food handlers indicated their own risk and their peers' risk of causing a foodborne disease. Responses were given on a 10cm linear scale anchored with descriptors of intensity ranging from “none” to “very high”. The difference between these risk perceptions characterized a score of tendency of an OB. A structured questionnaire was administered to evaluate knowledge, attitudes, self-reported practices and food safety performance. A total of 183 food handlers participated in the study. Microbiological analyses were conducted with ready-to-eat foods/preparations from selected sites. The food handlers perceived themselves as less likely than their peers to cause a foodborne disease (p<0.001), demonstrating the tendency of an OB. Food handlers who had undergone some training presented lower scores for the perceived risk of themselves being responsible for a foodborne disease and higher knowledge than did untrained individuals. Hospitals, schools and restaurants performed better than street food group considering food safety performance. However, microorganisms were found in food samples from hospitals. This result may be motivated by OB and other subjective factors. Apparently, this positive outlook of food handlers is associated with training participation, lethality perception and correlating positively with age. No association was found between OB scores and knowledge, attitudes and self-reported practices. Since OB may lead individuals to adopt inappropriate or dangerous behavior, strategies for debiasing food handlers should be designed.