Food Business Operators' Views on Official Food Control in Approved Establishments

Introduction: Effective food safety risk management in food production is a basis for preventing food borne outbreaks in the food supply chain. Food business operators’ (FBO) attitudes towards official food control may affect their food premises’ hygiene level and food safety. Understanding the factors affecting FBOs’ perceptions of food control is essential for enhancing effective food control practices and food safety.

Purpose: The aim of the study was to survey FBOs’ opinions about significance and uniformity of official food control.

Methods: An inquiry examining FBOs’ views on official food control and food safety inspections was sent to all approved meat, fish and dairy establishments (n = 634) under municipal food control in Finland in fall 2015. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS statistical software.

Results: Only 33.1% (39/118) of the respondents analyzed (n = 126) considered official control to be uniform, and 20.2 % (24/119) perceived that official control has been arbitrary. However, 84.5 % (104/123) of the respondents considered official control of their establishment as significant for food safety. The better the respondents assessed the cooperation with the inspector, the more uniform and the more beneficial for their establishment’s hygiene they perceived official control to be (Spearman’s rho p < 0.000 and p < 0.000, respectively).

Significance: Even though most FBOs perceive official food control as significant for food safety, there is a rather notable group finding deficiencies in its uniformity and consistency. Cooperative approach in the inspecting procedures should be emphasized as it seems to affect positively on FBOs’ views on official food control and thus presumably has positive effects on food safety. Further analysis of the data is needed to detect the features behind the negative views on official food control.