Assessing food safety culture and climate in Lebanese industries

Abstract

Introduction: Food safety has been evolving tremendously in the past century and its importance in food industries is now very well established. However, with all the regulations, training, audits and inspections foodborne outbreaks continue to happen. Food safety climate has a great impact on food safety output of food companies. However, the organizational characteristics, food handlers’ behavior, knowledge and motivation of individual employees could also contribute to the food safety output. Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the major factors contributing to the food safety climate of food handlers in the Lebanese food industries during the COVID-19 pandemic and the Lebanese economic crisis. Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out on 204 participants from 23 Lebanese industries between July and September 2021 to evaluate the food safety climate, behavior, and knowledge of employees in food industries across Lebanon. The questionnaire was composed of two sections. One section dealing with socio demographic and economic status and one section assessing the food safety climate. A validated model of food safety climate self-assessment tool was used. This tool was developed and validated by De Boeck et al. in 2015 and it consists of 28 indicators. Company characteristics were also filled out. The association between food safety climate from one hand and socio-demographic and work-related determinants from another hand was investigated. Results: Out of the 23 participating companies, 26.1% were micro, 17.4% small, 30.4% medium and 26.1% large. Most of the industries (34.8%) were food service (restaurants/ diet center), 30.4% bakeries and confectionary, 17.4% meat and dairy products and 17.4% canned food and beverage. Most of the participating companies (65.2%) do not export their products, and 39.1% were ISO 22000 certified. Among the recruited participants (n = 204) with a mean age equal to 34.6 ± 8.6 years, 65.2% were males, 91.7% were Lebanese, 51.5% were married, 45.1% had a monthly net income ranging between 1,500,000-2,999,000 Lebanese pound, and 53.9% had a bachelor’s degree. Furthermore, 28.4% of the participants had a degree in sciences/food science/ nutrition and 35.8% had degrees in other majors. The mean score of the food safety climate score that included 28 questions divided into five categories was 119.09 ± 11.14. Moreover, the mean score of the food safety motivation that included five questions was 20.71± 2.36, burnout/job stress that included six questions was 17.06 ± 5.71 and lastly conscientiousness that included six questions with a mean of 20.73 ± 2.25. Socio-demographic variables that showed a significant association (p<0.05) with food safety climate score were gender, age, education level, and major. A multiple regression was performed after adjusting for confounders, which included gender, age, education level, major, income, level of food handling, job role, medical checkups, number of working hours, food safety motivation, burnout, conscientiousness, food safety courses, feeling of losing job and salary drop in addition to company related parameters. The results showed that exporting companies, food safety motivation, and conscientiousness were positively associated with food safety climate, while working hours per day and burnout/job stress were negatively associated with the climate score. Conclusion: This is the first study done after the COVID-19 pandemic and during the current economic crisis in Lebanon that will assess the current food safety climate situation. Therefore, managers and business owners can use this data to work on improving food safety climate and make it more resilient and prepared to similar future events.