Food Safety Certification and Knowledge

EHS-Net Recommends

Future prevention efforts should focus on

• Encouraging certification of managers and workers.
• Applying food safety training programs that adequately address the needs of employees with limited English speaking and reading skills. The Food and Drug Administration provides educational materials for retail food employees.
• Ensuring that independent and smaller restaurants have access to food safety training programs and are encouraged to use them.

Why This Study Was Done

More than half of foodborne illness outbreaks in the United States are related to restaurants or delis.

Sick food workers have been linked with past foodborne illness outbreaks.

To combat restaurant-related outbreaks, many public health agencies encourage or require food safety certification for restaurant kitchen managers and sometimes workers.

Food safety certification efforts are based on the belief that certification leads to greater food safety knowledge. But we need to know more about the link between certification and knowledge.

What the Study Described

The purpose of this study was to examine the link between food safety certification and food safety knowledge. We also examined the link between knowledge and other things, like restaurant traits and job experience.

What the Study Found

Managers and workers who had been certified in food safety were more likely to pass a food safety knowledge test than those who were not certified. Additionally, managers and workers whose primary language was English were more likely to pass a knowledge test than those whose primary language was not English.

Other factors linked with passing the knowledge test included working in a chain restaurant, working in a larger restaurant, having more job-related experience, and having more job duties.

For both managers and workers, greater food safety knowledge was related to

• Being certified in food safety
• Speaking English as a primary language

For managers, greater food safety knowledge was related to

• Having more manager experience
• Working in a chain restaurant
• Working in a larger restaurant.

For workers, greater food safety knowledge was related to

• Having a manager with greater food safety knowledge
• Speaking English as a primary language
• Having a lot of job duties.