Responsibility For Food Safety Research Articles

Older Adult Consumers' Attitudes and Perceptions of Risk, Control, and Responsibility for Food Safety in the Domestic Kitchen

Although vast amounts of consumer food safety knowledge and self-reported data exist, attitudinal data detailing perceptions of risk, control, and responsibility are lacking. Such data relating to vulnerable groups, including older adults, are particularly scarce. Perception determination is essential in consumer food safety research to facilitate a comprehensive understanding of the cognitive factors that may impact behavior. Previous research has indicated a relationship between food safety perceptions and behavior. Perceptual data can inform the development of targeted food safety educational interventions. This study was conducted to ascertain older adult consumers' cognitive perceptions regarding food safety. Older adults (≥60 years, n = 100) participated in a computer-assisted personal interview to determine perceived risk, control, and responsibility associated with food safety. Although the potential severity of foodborne illness may be understood, the association between foodborne illness and domestic food preparation may be underestimated. Significant differences were found between perceived personal risk, control, and responsibility and the risks, control, and responsibilities of others ( P > 0.001). Older adults perceived themselves to have lower levels of risk than other individuals have, suggesting perceptions of optimistic bias and personal invulnerability. Perceived greater levels of personal control and responsibility, compared with those of others, suggest perceptions associated with the illusion of control. Correlations were evaluated between personal perceptions of risk, control, and responsibility ( P < 0.05). Low levels of risk were correlated with high levels of control. Those respondents ≥80 years of age perceived higher levels of risk and lower levels of control and responsibility. Cumulatively, older adult consumers expressed perceptions of invulnerability, optimistic bias, and the illusion of control regarding food safety. Such perceptions may undermine attempts to provide education regarding food safety. Food safety messages for this audience must be tailored to overcome such perceptions.

Before The Jungle : The Atlantic origins of US food safety regulation

Abstract Food-borne illness remains a major public health problem, with millions sickened annually even in Europe, the United States and other wealthy regions. In the United States, public health authorities contend with limited budgets, criticism from both the political right and left and challenges from both old and new pathogens. Despite their remarkable success in improving the safety of food since the nineteenth century, food regulators struggle with public scepticism and to keep food safe. This paper traces the origins of US food safety regulations to late nineteenth-century exchanges with European governments and consumers and uses the transatlantic oyster trade to illustrate a profound - but still contested - shift in responsibility for food safety between consumers, producers and governmental agencies.

Future professional food handlers’ perspectives towards food safety

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to gain insight into various food safety aspects of future professional food handlers, representing different professions in the food supply chain (FSC), close to the end of their formal education.Design/methodology/approachA total of 15 focus group discussions including 94 participants were conducted. A semi-structured approach was applied to discussions about the comprehension of food safety, the responsibility for food safety, the barriers hindering food safety practices, and the food safety influence of other people.FindingsDifferences related to the field of study and level of education were identified. The results demonstrate the diversity of interpretations of food safety with control of biological hazards strongly emphasized. The responsibility for food safety is perceived differently by position in the FSC. Different barriers related to the working environment and personal factors were identified. Parental influence on the target population is decreased as focus is shifted to the teachers of practical classes and especially to the instructors in food enterprises.Research limitations/implicationsConsidering the response rate and the small number of schools offering a specific study programme not all the study fields and educational levels were equally represented.Practical implicationsThe findings could assist educators, policy makers, and food business operators in their efforts to develop educational programmes that will more effectively contribute to the safety of food.Originality/valueNo research thus far has focussed on students being educated as future professional food handlers.

ВЕТЕРИНАРНА МЕДИЦИНА УКРАЇНИ І ЧАС РЕФОРМ

The State Service of Ukraine on issues of food safety and consumer protection (Derzhprodspozhyvsluzhba) is a central executive body that implements the state policy in the field of veterinary medicine, the fields of security and individual food quality indicators, identification and registration of animals, sanitary legislation, market surveillance within the scope of their responsibilities, the state control over observance of legislation on consumer protection and advertising in this area in accordance with the law of Ukraine «on basic principles and requirements for safety and quality of food», which entered into force on 20 September 2015. This law establishes a new approach to food safety. The primary responsibility for food safety lies with the manufacturers, and government control is not directed to the finished product, and the production and trafficking.The only supervisory body in the field of food safety in Ukraine, according to the law, is the State Service for Food Safety and Consumer Protection. Service exercises its powers directly and through its territorial bodies – food safety and veterinary control products in all areas of Kiev, and cities of regional subordination, areas.As a result of the creation in Ukraine Derzhprodspozhyvsluzhby obtained a clear hierarchy of government veterinary medicine, required by the European Community, in particular, is structurally complies with the requirements of the European Union. Their main task – the diversity of the state veterinary supervision and its periodicity.

Food Safety as Culinary Infrastructure in Singapore, 1920–1990

A nuanced understanding of food safety encompasses how people think about food threats and safety and the interwoven institutions, regulations, and technologies that create the related knowledge. Using examples drawn from Singapore, this article shows that the less structured, more informal body of popular knowledge about food safety can be understood as a kind of culinary infrastructure. In a nation that has always relied on imported food, a contextual and contingent historical approach demonstrates elements of continuity and change in popular food safety knowledge, across colonial and postcolonial moments. A complex tripartite arrangement among the main local players – the state, merchants, and the consumers – was established which emphasized local responsibility for food safety. This is illustrated by the commercial and information functions of the local English-language press, where articles, advertising campaigns for products such as refrigerators and insecticide, public campaigns, and consumer advocates helped shape knowledge of food safety as a shared responsibility. Singapore’s experience highlights popular knowledge as culinary infrastructure and is relevant for a globalized world, demonstrating a food safety regime geographically distant from food production and simultaneously highly reliant on effective local actors. In so doing, Singapore suggests a potential alternative way to engage with globalized food – via a popular focus on shared local responsibilities.

The Influence of Liability Law on Food Safety on Preventive Effects of Liability Claims and Liability Insurance

Most research on food safety has focused on direct forms of food safety regulation.This paper explores product liability law as a driver of food safety measures in firms. Its purpose is to widen the debate on liability law to include discussion of the actual impact on firm behaviour. Liability law is assumed to promote food safety. The author distinguishes three ways in which liability law could act as an incentive for firms to implement enhanced food safety controls: liability claims, liability insurance and direct effects of liability law on management strategy. The paper concludes that the assumption that liability laws make firms sensitive to the prevention of food safety risks is too optimistic. However, liability law could stimulate a culture within firms to take responsibility for food safety. Existing economic and legal analysis would gain from a sociological analysis of the actual impact of liability on company decisions.

The challenges for nut‐allergic consumers of eating out

For individuals with a nut allergy, the avoidance of allergens is particularly challenging in situations where they are not preparing their own food. Many allergic reactions occur when eating outside the home. To identify and explore the challenges faced by nut-allergic individuals (NAIs) when they are eating in restaurants and other eating establishments. A qualitative interview study was conducted with 32 adults with a clinical history of allergy to peanuts and/or tree nuts. The main strategies that participants adopted to manage the risk of allergic reactions when eating outside the home were avoidance and communication. They avoided types of restaurants, meal courses or particular foods. Seeking familiarity was a key strategy that enabled NAIs to reduce uncertainty and anxiety. Language differences were a major barrier to confident communication about food content. The need to check whether the food on offer may contain nuts was a source of social embarrassment for many participants and the desire to avoid this sometimes led to increased risk taking. Some did not disclose their allergy to restaurant staff as they feared a conservative reaction that would further constrain food choices. NAIs often have to plan where to eat out. The consequent lack of spontaneity was a source of regret to some. Communication patterns of nut-allergic adults are often grounded in legitimate everyday social considerations around embarrassment, choice and spontaneity. Education and training strategies are needed that recognize and take account of this. Focusing on communication deficits of NAIs may be unhelpful; responsibility for food safety must be shared with the food industry.

EU FOOD SAFETY POLICY

ABSTRACT Food safety is a vital concern and a salient regulatory arena, with important implications for consumers, producers and retailers of food. Following the BSE crisis in 1996, and with the alleged aim to restore consumer confidence in food, national and fragmented food safety regulations across Europe were transformed into a new European-wide food regulatory system. This included a new legal and regulatory framework, a new institutional set-up of public authorities, and new roles for public and private actors. The article analyses how the division of responsibilities for food safety has changed both across the EU as a whole and, more specifically, in six European countries. Based on seven case studies, which were prepared as part of a comparative research project, TRUSTINFOOD, the article analyses how core principles of the new EU food safety policy was put into practice in Denmark, Germany, Italy, Norway, Portugal and the UK. The article demonstrates how changes in regulatory practices in EU and the six countries converge with respect to formal regulatory framework and diverge with respect to practical implementation and institutional reform. It is a shared perspective to restore consumer confidence by enhancing institutional independence, transparency and consumer agency, but conditions for this differ between the countries. The structure of food markets and the political agendas around food issues continue to vary in different national contexts but the new food safety policy may further the development of the single European market and thus promote changes within the food production systems in Europe.

Presence and Numbers of Campylobacter, Escherichia coli, and Salmonella Determined in Broiler Carcass Rinses from United States Processing Plants in the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point-Based Inspection Models Project

In 1999, the USDA-Food Safety and Inspection Service introduced an inspection system called the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point-Based Inspection Models Project (HIMP). The HIMP varies from standard inspection in that the emphasis of Food Safety and Inspection Service inspection program personnel is shifted. Each carcass is still visually inspected according to the Poultry Products Inspection Act, but some responsibility for food safety and identification and removal of defects is shifted from the regulatory agency to the processor, freeing up inspectors to more effectively verify the process and food safety system of the establishment. This survey was conducted in 2 stages: first to examine carcasses collected in HIMP and non-HIMP plants and then to test carcasses from all 20 volunteer plants currently operating under HIMP inspection. Carcasses were collected at rehang and postchill being careful to follow the same flock through processing. Postchill carcasses from HIMP plants were found to have equal bacterial contamination (numbers of Campylobacter and Escherichia coli and presence of Salmonella) as carcasses from standard HACCP plants. Overall, HIMP inspection, which places additional responsibility on the plant for process control, does not affect the microbiological quality of fully processed broiler carcasses.

Constraints to Microbial Food Safety Policy: Opinions from Stakeholder Groups along the Farm to Fork Continuum

This exploratory qualitative study was conducted to identify constraints to microbial food safety policy in Canada and the USA from the perspective of stakeholder groups along the farm to fork continuum. Thirty-seven stakeholders participated in interviews or a focus group where semi-structured questions were used to facilitate discussion about constraints to policy development and implementation. An emergent grounded theory approach was used to determine themes and concepts that arose from the data (versus fitting the data to a hypothesis or a priori classification). Despite the plurality of stakeholders and the range of content expertise, participant perceptions emerged into five common themes, although, there were often disagreements as to the positive or negative attributes of specific concepts. The five themes included challenges related to measurement and objectives of microbial food safety policy goals, challenges arising from lack of knowledge, or problems with communication of knowledge coupled with current practices, beliefs and traditions; the complexity of the food system and the plurality of stakeholders; the economics of producing safe food and the limited resources to address the problem; and, issues related to decision-making and policy, including ownership of the problem and inappropriate inputs to the decision-making process. Responsibilities for food safety and for food policy failure were attributed to all stakeholders along the farm to fork continuum. While challenges regarding the biology of food safety were identified as constraints, a broader range of policy inputs encompassing social, economic and political considerations were also highlighted as critical to the development and implementation of effective food safety policy. Strategies to address these other inputs may require new, transdisciplinary approaches as an adjunct to the traditional science-based risk assessment model.

Food Safety—Who Is Responsible?

Though scientists believe that issues of risk can be handled without appeal to values in general or ethics in particular, this is demonstrably false. The very notion of risk is enmeshed in a complex of social ethics. This is clearly true with regard to food safety. With this in mind, it is plausible to affirm that responsibility for food safety at a given point in the chain from producer to consumer rests with the person or entity under whose control the management of that risk most plausibly lies. This principle is illustrated with various examples and with clear cases of industry shouldering and avoiding responsibility. An additional ethical concern relevant to food safety arises from genetically modified foods. Given that the situation here is uncertain and risk unknown, it is hard to see who is responsible for managing such risks. It is arguable that this situation militates in favor of labeling, since consumers are in effect research subjects. The reasonable moral approach to risk we have outlined is jeopardized by the societal tendency towards "victimology" and abrogation of personal responsibility. In such a world, it is incumbent on industry to educate the public with regard to consumer minimization of food safety risks, the impossibility of zero-risk situations, and the economic costs to freedom of protectionism.

Learning Sustainable Development with a Farm Enterprise and Its Community

ABSTRACT Model social processes useful in facilitating sustainable development are advanced from our team experiences with a case study. The processes are: learn how to learn as a team and community, use a model process that reveals shared interests and leverageable points, and then facilitate local stakeholders in developmental action. The case provided the team the opportunity to learn to describe and comprehend the case agroecosystem as a whole–natural elements and social relationships. Dialogue among stakeholders created an awareness and clarity of leverageable issues. Team engagement with local stakeholders facilitated efforts to organize, integrate information and motivate developmental action. Case issue lessons were: farmers need information to transition to more sustainable forms of agriculture, institutional mechanisms are needed to support the development of new markets, consumers need information on the benefits of using agriculural products that enhance their environment, and the public needs to share responsibility for food safety and health rather than generating more governmental regulation. This sustainable development model process is presented to inform other farm-community change efforts.

Evaluating Hygiene Behaviour in the Domestic Setting and the Impact of Hygiene Education

Edited transcript of an oral presentation There is a Food Research and Consultancy Unit at UWIC in Cardiff consisting of a Food Safety Research Group, a Food Industry Centre, that works with problem solving and training in food manufacturing, as well as a Biotechnology Support Unit that works on microbiological and rapid testing techniques. The responsibility for food safety is shared between government, industry and the consumer (Table I).1 What is the main role of government in this shared responsibility? Obviously, government has to fund the burden of treating the people who fall ill, and medical provision is a fairly substantial cost. Government has also to set the framework for legislation and enforcement and one area that the Food Standards Agency (FSA) is currently looking at is obtaining the best from our current systems. Epidemiological surveillance and research is another important role of government. Epidemiology is the backbone upon which most of the other preventive measures will ultimately be based. Research is vitally important, and it is to be hoped that the FSA will continue to fund it.

Keep Food Safe to Eat: Healthful Food Must Be Safe as Well as Nutritious

The inclusion of food safety in the 2000 edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans is an important step toward ensuring their continued relevance for health promotion and disease prevention. The inclusion of food safety is consistent with the original intent of the Guidelines and the increased focus on food safety today; it also better reflects current knowledge about diet and long-term health. A wide spectrum of surveillance methods can be used to monitor progress in reducing the incidence of foodborne illness, from surveys of food safety attitudes to epidemiologic data on foodborne illness. Surveillance data show that progress is being made, but that much work remains to be done. Strategies for reducing foodborne illness require a farm-to-table approach and the involvement of all those who have a responsibility for food safety, i.e., government, industry and the public. Federal agencies and others are finding it useful to use a risk analysis framework, i.e., risk assessment, risk management and risk communication, as a means of organizing available information, identifying data gaps, quantifying risks for specific pathogens and foods, and presenting strategies for improvement. Food safety education is a critical part of the overall strategy to reduce the incidence of foodborne illness and complements regulatory, research and other activities.

How can the principles of validation and verification be applied to hazard analysis?

The acceptance of Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) as the food safety control system of choice by the food industry, governments and regulatory bodies with responsibility for food safety, has lead to the proliferation of HACCP plans on a world wide basis. The adoption of the Codex Alimentarius text (Alinorm 97/13A) as the authoritative text on Principles and Guidelines for HACCP has contributed significantly to a more harmonised approach and agreed terminology, but there is still some lack of clarity over the specific activities of validation and verification. A logical interpretation of the Codex text would lead one to believe that validation is primarily concerned with those activities that evaluate the scientific and technical content of the HACCP plan, whereas verification focuses primarily on procedures required to determine compliance with an operational HACCP system. Using the above criteria this paper looks at the application of validation and verification to the HACCP Principle of Hazard Analysis. Hazard Analysis is concerned primarily with the identification of hazards that are of such a nature that they must be controlled to ensure safe food and must therefore be included in the HACCP plan. As such Hazard Analysis is probably the key HACCP Principle. The paper proposes mechanisms to validate the identification of hazards for inclusion in the HACCP Plan and concludes that validation in particular has a very important role to play in providing both scientific and technical support for hazard selection as well as providing focus for the subsequent development of the HACCP plan.

Appointment of medical officers of health (food safety) is essential for achieving food safety objectives in the UK. Response to food borne illness section (4.44-4.49) of the White Paper, the Food Standard Agency--a force for change, MAFF January 1998.

National surveys reveal that the public has lost confidence in the safety of food. There is lack of co-ordination and failure to overcome institutional barriers at many levels throughout the food chain. The abolition of the post of medical officer of health and the public health departments of local government over which it presided, in view of many, including members of parliament, has been the most damaging of all changes to the public health and many have asked for the restoration of this post. Health departments have no overall statutory responsibility for food safety. The medical expertise of medical officers of health provided the executive authority with the necessary support in managing and controlling outbreaks of food poisoning, a point emphasised in the recommendations made by an inquiry set up by the government following the worst ever outbreak of food poisoning in Lanarkshire, Scotland, UK. Only such an appointment at local level will restore public confidence in food safety.

Sufficient Grounds for Optimism?: The Relationship Between Perceived Controllability and Optimistic Bias

Evidence that perceived controllability is associated with optimistic bias is reviewed. There is sufficient evidence that people are optimistically biased about negative events they perceive to be controllable. More work is needed to establish whether this is also true of positive events. There is evidence also that people often hold beliefs of their personal superiority on control-related dimensions. More experimental studies testing hypotheses about the mechanisms linking perceived control and optimistic bias are required. Future work should also expand the sophistication with which control is treated conceptually and empirically and the range of potential mechanisms examined.

Food safety. Federal inspection programs. Council on Scientific Affairs, American Medical Association

Concern about the safety of the US food supply has stimulated criticism of the present system for assuring safe food in American markets. This report was prepared in response to resolutions introduced at the American Medical Association House of Delegates' December 1990 Interim Meeting. The resolutions requested the AMA to study the plans and procedures needed to improve the federal inspection of meat, poultry, and shellfish. To put these issues into perspective, an overview of food safety is presented. This report is not intended, however, to be a broad review of the Food and Drug Administration's and the US Department of Agriculture's responsibilities for food safety.

Public attitudes toward food safety

This article presents the results of a national opinion poll of grocery shoppers on their attitudes toward food safety. Specific issues examined include nutrition and food safety, attitudes toward specific substances, product tampering, product recalls, sources of information, and responsibility for food safety. Results indicate that in spite of a series of food safety related events over the last three years, public confidence in the basic wholesomeness and safety of our food supply has remained intact.

Can genetic engineering prevent food-poisoning?

Can genetic engineering prevent food-poisoning?