Food Safety Culture: An Underlying Cause for Success and Failures of Food Safety Management Systems

Abstract

Food Safety Culture (FSC) is an emerging behavior-based food-safety management concept. FSC has been linked as an underlying cause for food-safety management-system failures during foodborne outbreaks and recall investigations. This paper reviews the available literature on FSC for the origin, definitions, factors, barriers, and dimensions that influence the FSC’s performance and measurements. Data were obtained from peer-reviewed journals as well as publicly available information on the World Health Organization (WHO), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) websites. The roles of organizational leadership and communication, food-handler behaviors, risk perception, regulatory authorities, and technological advancements are evaluated for FSC development and enhancement. It can be concluded that there is a need for a strong FSC within food manufacturing and service organizations because it enhances the food-safety management systems’ performance and may also reduce the global burden of foodborne illnesses and diseases.