Page 57 - FoodFocusThailand No.156 March 2019

SAFETY ALERT
SAFETY ALERT

Techniques of Behavioral

Change on Sustainable

Food Safety Production

Employee practice or employee behavior affects food safety. Yet,
changing the employee practice or behavior is not easy. General methods
that food factories use to help employees understand and recognize the
importance of food safety and result in changing in practices or behaviors
are such as training and monitoring of employee performance. However,
food safety problems from various contamination hazards still occur. One
of major reasons is the employee practice or behavior. For instance, a
contamination of Listeria monocytogenes in meat products of a large
enterprise in Canada caused 23 dead. Following the work of the their working behavior with high determination, careful, and
government’s investigative committee, they provided 57 recommendations responsibility to prevent cross-contamination of allergens to the
รองศาสตราจารย์ ดร.สุดสาย ตรีวานิช for this enterprise to use as guidelines and solve the problems. Moreover, production line with have no allergens as an ingredient
the committee also reflected that this enterprise less concerned on food • Making Food Safety the Social Norm Lapinski et al. (2013)
Associate Professor Sudsai Trevanich, Ph.D. safety for the time before the problem had occurred or during the problem
Department of Food Science and Technology had been occurred. The company seriously need to establish a food studied on the result of communication to male students to
Faculty of Agro-Industry, Kasetsart University safety culture, especially positive food safety culture as a concrete plan. acknowledge that hand washing is the norm for the institute by
fagisstn@ku.ac.th putting on the message that “4 in 5 men wash hands” with images
Yiannas Frank said that the application of behavioral science helps of students in the toilet. The study found that the percentage of
manage the change of practice or behavior of employees in order to male students wash hands had been increased compared to not
produce safe food sustainably or it can be summarized that “Food safety communicating or put any signs for increasing acknowledgement
= behavior” to change the behavior of employees to be in compliance that hands washing is the norm. The study showed that people
with good hygiene principles consistently on regularly and constantly is tend to change their behavior according to the guidelines that are
important. Employees must have automated practices. Several years accepted by most people. Therefore, factories must make food
ago, there are many science researches on behavior, which can be used safety the social norm which people in the organization will accept
or applied for changing the behavior of employees in the food factory in and follow.
order to produce safe food. The applying of principles from research is • Shining a Light on Food Safety Zhong et al. (2010) studied
no need to invest a lot of money, but we have to understand and be able to find the answer that light affects the expression of honest
to use or adapt to create outcome or improve employee behavior for safe behavior of employees in the organization. The results showed
food production or to create food safety culture in the organization. that having light will decrease the dishonest behavior of employees.
Yiannas Frank collects a variety of research and various principles When making a comparison with low light in the room, the study
on behavioral science, while also illustrate the use of such principles in showed that people tended to express the correct behavior
order to change employee behavior on food safety. The author; hence, according to the organization’s rules in a room with shining light
would like to present some examples from the work of Yiannas Frank for or in an open place, where can be seen or observed from other
the reader to understand and be able to apply in reality. people. Therefore, food production line should have sufficient light,
• Enclothed Food Safety Adam and Galinsky (2012) studied about while have been managed for allowing people to see the
the effect of clothes on behavioral expression by experimenting with performance of employees at all time or installing cameras to
dividing students into groups. Then, member of each group was assigned observe the operations of employees. This was due to employees
to wear the same lab coat while also assigned different roles for each are constantly aware that there may be monitoring or observed
group such as doctors or artists. The experiment found that a group of during their works along the food production line. Thus, employees
students, which wore a lab coat and has a role as a doctor, showed an will not have any unhygienic behavior or risk behavior on food
intention, carefulness and responsibility behavior. The study can be implied safety.
that people tend to change their behavior according to their assigned Changing of employee behavior on food safety can be made,
roles. In general, if we consider on food safety, wearing a cloth that the but may take time due to many factors influence on changing
company provides for employees, people often understand that it helps behavior or create positive safety culture in the organization. To
prevent contamination or cross contamination into food, food surface, adopt of behavior science is one of importance techniques that
and food packaging without having an idea that clothes have an influence affect on the establishing of positive food safety culture.
on changing behavior of the wearer. Therefore, the factory should consider
the importance of this issue such as designing a hat or apron with text เอกสารอ้างอิง/References
screen on the cloth saying that “Allergens” or having symbols that convey Yiannas, F. 2017. Food Safety = Behavior, Evolution of food safety culture &
meaning to employees who work in the production line with allergens as behavior from slogan to science. Available at: http://www.fightbac.org/wp-content/
uploads/2017/02/Yiannas_CFSEC_2017-for-Distribution.pdf, Date accessed:
ingredients. Consequence, these employees have a tendency to change February 5, 2019.
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