Laura A. Brannon

Restaurant Employees’ Perceptions of Barriers to Three Food Safety Practices

Limited research has been conducted to assess employees perceptions of barriers to implementing food safety practices. Focus groups were conducted with two groups of restaurant employees to identify perceived barriers to implementing three food safety practices: handwashing, using thermometers, and cleaning work surfaces. Ten focus groups were conducted with 34 employees who did not receive training (Group A). Twenty focus groups were conducted with 125 employees after they had participated in a formal ServSafe training program (Group B). The following barriers were identified in at least one focus group in both Group A and Group B for all three practices: time constraints, inconvenience, inadequate training, and inadequate resources. In Group A, additional barriers identified most often were a lack of space and other tasks competing with cleaning work surfaces; inconvenient location of sinks and dry skin from handwashing; and lack of working thermometers and thermometers in inconvenient locations. Additional barriers identified most often by Group B were no incentive to do it and the manager not monitoring whether employees cleaned work surfaces; inconvenient location of sinks and dry skin from handwashing; and lack of working thermometers and manager not monitoring the use of thermometers. Results will be used to develop and implement interventions to overcome perceived barriers that training appears not to address. Knowledge of perceived barriers among employees can assist food and nutrition professionals in facilitating employees in overcoming these barriers and ultimately improve compliance with food safety practices.

Identifying specific beliefs to target to improve restaurant employees’ intentions for performing three important food safety behaviors

Current national food safety training programs appear ineffective at improving food safety practices in foodservice operations, given the substantial number of Americans affected by foodborne illnesses after eating in restaurants each year. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TpB) was used to identify important beliefs that may be targeted to improve foodservice employees intentions for three food safety behaviors that have the most substantial affect on public health: hand washing, using thermometers, and proper handling of food contact surfaces. In a cross-sectional design, foodservice employees (n=190) across three midwestern states completed a survey assessing TpB components and knowledge for the three food safety behaviors. Multiple regression analyses were performed on the TpB components for each behavior. Independent-samples t tests identified TpB beliefs that discriminated between participants who absolutely intend to perform the behaviors and those with lower intention. Employees attitudes were the one consistent predictor of intentions for performing all three behaviors. However, a unique combination of important predictors existed for each separate behavior. Interventions for improving employees behavioral intentions for food safety should focus on TpB components that predict intentions for each behavior and should bring all employees beliefs in line with those of the employees who already intend to perform the food safety behaviors. Registered dietitians; dietetic technicians, registered; and foodservice managers can use these results to enhance training sessions and motivational programs to improve employees food safety behaviors. Results also assist these professionals in recognizing their responsibility for enforcing and providing adequate resources for proper food safety behaviors.

Assessing College Students' Attitudes Toward Responsible Drinking Messages to Identify Promising Binge Drinking Intervention Strategies

Health communication appeals were utilized through a Web site simulation to evaluate the potential effectiveness of 3 intervention approaches to promote responsible drinking among college students. Within the Web site simulation, participants were exposed to a persuasive message designed to represent either the generalized social norms advertising approach (based on others behavior), the personalized behavioral feedback approach (tailored to the individuals behavior), or the schema-based approach (tailored to the individuals self-schema, or personality). A control group was exposed to a message that was designed to be neutral (it was designed to discourage heavy drinking, but it did not represent any of the previously mentioned approaches). It was hypothesized that the more personalized the message was to the individual, the more favorable college students attitudes would be toward the responsible drinking message. Participants receiving the more personalized messages did report more favorable attitudes toward the responsible drinking message.

Appreciation of Food Safety Practices Based on Level of Experience

This study sought to determine if no experience, basic experience, or well-informed experience (defined as basic experience and formal food safety training) in a foodservice operation would influence attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control toward three important behaviors that can help prevent foodborne illness (handwashing, using thermometers, and sanitizing work surfaces). Results suggest that formal training increases respondents appreciation of the importance of these food safety practices. Those with formal food safety training identified more attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control constructs than participants with basic experience or no experience in foodservice. Factors that help and impede employees in following proper food safety practices were identified. Foodservice operators and sanitarians can utilize these results to employ strategies to address the barriers preventing employees from applying food safety practices and to increase compliance with food safety regulations during individual inspections within operations, respectively.

Intervention improves restaurant employees' food safety compliance rates.

Purpose – This paper aims to evaluate the relative effectiveness of four‐hour ServSafe® food safety training, a theory‐based intervention targeting food service employees perceived barriers to implementing food safety practices, and a combination of the two treatments. Dependent measures include behavioral compliance with and perceptions of control over performing hand washing, use of thermometers, and handling of work surfaces.Design/methodology/approach – Four groups are compared: employees receiving only ServSafe® training, intervention alone, training and intervention, and no treatment. Employees complete a questionnaire assessing perceived barriers to practicing the targeted behaviors. Then, employees are observed in the production area for behavioral compliance.Findings – Training or intervention alone is better than no treatment, but the training/intervention combination is most effective at improving employees compliance with and perceptions of control over performing the behaviors.Research limi...

Increasing Selective Exposure to Health Messages by Targeting Person Versus Behavior Schemas

Schema correspondence theory (Brannon & Brock, 1994) was applied to the topic of selective exposure to health information. The following question was asked: When do people prefer to expose themselves to health-relevant information tailored to match their own needs and values (i.e., recipient self-schema matching) versus the values and goals that the healthy behavior brings to mind (i.e., behavior schema matching)? In general, recipient self-schema matched messages tended to be preferred over behavior schema matched messages. However, this tendency was attenuated to the extent that the behavior had a very well defined (prototypical) schema.

Using the Theory of Planned Behavior to Elicit Restaurant Employee Beliefs about Food Safety: Using Surveys Versus Focus Groups

Within the framework of the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1991), this study compared the relative usefulness of utilizing a focus group or survey methodology when eliciting restaurant employees beliefs about performing three important food safety behaviors (handwashing, using thermometers, and cleaning and sanitizing work surfaces). Restaurant employees completed both a survey and focus group interview assessing their beliefs about food safety. Results obtained through surveys were observed to be comparable to focus groups, suggesting researchers employ the less expensive and less time-consuming survey methodology. The strengths and weaknesses of each method are discussed. Specific salient beliefs (e.g., advantages, barriers, etc.) about the behaviors offer implications for workplace food safety interventions and training.

Encouraging Responsible Drinking Among Underage Drinkers

Abstract Public Service Announcements tailored to specific college drinking rituals (Treise, Wolburg and Otnes 1999) were tested on 133 underage undergraduate drinkers. More significant reductions in drinking intentions were found when using appeals focusing on drinking rituals pertaining to Maturity/Order (older students drink moderately: “Dont drink like a freshman.”) than to Transformation (desired personality and mood changes), Community (social bonding and camaraderie), or a no-message Control. Gender did not moderate this effect. Underage drinkers may drink, in part, to feel more “grown up.” Emphasizing that more senior students actually drink responsibly may diminish this belief and result in reduced alcohol consumption among underage students.