Establishing a Strong Food Safety Culture in Small Food Businesses

• Project start date: 1 October 2021
• Project status: Completed
• Project type: Food safety
• Discipline: Microbiology and Food Hygiene
• Principal researcher/s: Dr Lynsey Hollywood, University of Ulster

Research objective

This objective of this project was to investigate food safety culture among small food businesses on the island of Ireland.

A stakeholder approach was used to investigate food safety culture among small food businesses, specifically food retailers, food producers and food service establishments on the island of Ireland. Attitudes towards food safety were examined, the barriers and facilitators to establishing a strong food safety culture and recommendations were developed for overcoming these barriers.

Outputs

Research report

• Title: The attitudes, barriers and facilitators to establishing a strong food safety culture in small food businesses
• Publication date: 23 September 2024
• Summary: This research provides insight into the knowledge, beliefs, attitudes and presence of a food safety culture in small food businesses (on the island of Ireland. It also offers advice on resources that could support small food businesses in implementing a food safety culture.
• Findings:

  The study employed a mixed-methods approach.

  • Firstly, it combined qualitative one-to-one and focus-group discussions, which produced data on the level of knowledge and understanding of FSC and the attitudes and beliefs that surround it.
  • Secondly, a large quantitative survey sampled owners, managers and employees of small food businessese across the island of Ireland on their food safety culture knowledge and practices. This allowed us to compare different demographic regions, business types and ranking among the small food businesses. 

  The research sought insights that could help small food businesses maintain or improve food safety culture provision in relation to training, development and future policy.

  As part of the project, a number of tools/interventions were piloted and evaluated. These include Safefood’s food safety eLearning resource, Safefood for Business, and other services from relevant stakeholders, such as training courses, publications, and online resources.