Psychosocial and organizational determinants of safe food handling at retail and food service establishments: a systematic review and meta-analysis

ABSTRACT

Various psychosocial and organizational factors have been investigated as determinants of food handlers’ food safety behaviours. A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies in this area was conducted to identify and synthesize the key behavioural determinants. Standard systematic review steps were followed: comprehensive search strategy; relevance screening; article characterization; risk of bias assessment; data extraction; and random-effects meta-analysis. Sixty-two relevant studies were identified, and knowledge was the most commonly investigated behavioural determinant (n = 51). Increased knowledge was consistently associated with safe food handing behaviours across both correlation (r = 0.30; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.12, 0.46; n = 24 studies; I² = 98%) and odds ratio (OR) measures (adjusted OR = 1.85; 95% CI: 1.27, 2.70; n = 3; I² = 0%). Seven other behavioural determinant categories were also consistently associated with various food safety behaviour outcomes. In contrast, no association was found between food handler experience and behaviour. The findings can inform the development of targeted training initiatives for food handlers.

KEYWORDS:

• Knowledge synthesis
• food safety
• socio-cognitive factors
• restaurants
• hospitality industry

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Cecile Farnum for assistance developing the search strategy, and the Ryerson University library staff for assistance procuring relevant articles.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

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Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by a Scholarly, Research, and Creativity Activity Seed Grant, Faculty of Community Services, Ryerson University. In-kind support was also provided by the National Microbiology Laboratory @ Guelph, Public Health Agency of Canada.