The retail business has been negatively affected due to the increasing customer concerns about food safety and the recent events related to microbiological and chemical contamination of food products, such as the melamine in infant formula and the multiple cases of produce pathogen contamination. It has been shown that a scientific-based food safety system, such as, Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP), help reduce the likelihood of food safety incidents. Nevertheless, companies with these kinds of systems have too experienced public food safety issues. Food safety professionals have created instruments to measure food safety based on lagging indicators, such as pathogen presence or food safety incident reduction. Though, they have not created metrics based on leading indicators to measure the behavior driven by the culture of employees who handle the food. The employees who handle food are influenced by cultural values and behave in a company based on the company's cultural influence; hence, food safety should also be measured in cultural terms as a leading indicator. In order to measure food safety culture of a retail company and understand differences among groups, the researcher used case study methodology to select a USA based retailer. The researcher described the culture of the retailer, as well as the leadership styles. Based on these descriptions, the food safety culture of the company and the employee constructs were defined and piloted for construct validity and construct reliability. Once validated, a food safety culture survey instrument was implemented in the operations area of this retailer. The results showed that the employees agreed or strongly agreed that food safety was part of the corporate culture. One of the factors influencing the food safety culture was service to the customer. The results showed that there were differences in food safety culture across the different groups, but with negligible or small effect size. One of the main contributions of this study was the development of a metric to measure food safety culture in the retail industry. It also suggests that besides food safety audit scores and incident reduction, food safety needs to be measured in terms of the corporate culture of the retailer. In an effort to improve food safety around the world, organizations should consider that culture plays an important role.

Este estudo tem o objetivo de validar um instrumento (questionário) em português do Brasil para avaliação de cultura de segurança de alimentos (CSA). O cenário do estudo foi composto por áreas de manipulação de alimentos prontos para consumo de uma rede de lojas de hipermercado (RLH). A empresa possuía 2204 colaboradores de manipulação de alimentos em 28 lojas hipermercado. Foi realizada uma revisão da literatura científica nacional e internacional para identificar qual instrumento se adequa melhor segundo a realidade brasileira para autoavaliação da percepção dos colaboradores que manipulam alimentos a respeito da CSA. Os critérios para escolha do instrumento foram a disponibilidade do questionário para ser avaliado, a explicação dos elementos que compõem a CSA, itens condizentes com o dia a dia de manipulação de alimentos e limite de até 50 itens. Um instrumento de 31 itens e escala Likert de sete pontos foi escolhido. O processo de validação do instrumento baseou-se no trabalho de Borsa et. al. (2012) que estabeleceram seis passos: tradução do instrumento para o novo idioma, síntese das versões traduzidas, avaliação da síntese por experts, avaliação pelo público- alvo, backtranslation (retradução) e estudo piloto. Uma entrevista com um responsável pela segurança de alimentos da RLH foi coletada para obter outra fonte de informação sobre a CSA. O instrumento foi aplicado em 383 participantes de 15 lojas da RLH. Após a aplicação empírica do instrumento na RLH sucederam-se análises estatísticas descritivas e multivariadas dos dados. O instrumento foi validado para diagnosticar CSA em português brasileiro após as etapas descritas. Os resultados das respostas do instrumento demonstraram que a CSA possui tendência positiva. A entrevista corroborou as respostas dos participantes e mostrou uma CSA desenvolvida. / This study aims to validate an instrument (questionnaire) in Brazilian Portuguese for assess food safety culture (FSC). The study scenario was composed of ready-to-eat food handling areas of a hypermarket chain network (HCN). The company had 2204 food handling workers in 28 hypermarket stores. A review of national and international scientific literature was carried out to identify which instrument is best suited to the Brazilian reality for the self-assessment of food handlers\' perception of FSC. The criteria for choosing the instrument were the availability of the questionnaire to be evaluated, the explanation of the elements that make up the FSC, items consistent with the day to day food handling and limit of up to 50 items. An instrument of 31 items and a seven-point Likert scale was chosen. The validation process of the instrument was based on the work of Borsa et. al. (2012), which established six steps: translation of the instrument into the new language, synthesis of translated versions, evaluation of synthesis by experts, evaluation by the target audience, backtranslation and pilot study. An interview with an HCN food safety representative staff was collected for another source of information about FSC. The instrument was applied to 383 participants from 15 HCN stores. After the empirical application of the instrument in the HCN, descriptive and multivariate statistical analyzes of the data were succeeded. The instrument was validated to diagnose FSC in Brazilian Portuguese after the steps described. The results of the instrument responses showed that the FSC has a positive trend. The interview corroborated participants\' responses and showed a FSC developed.

The consumption of unsafe fresh vegetables has been linked to an increasing number of outbreaks of human infections. In Lebanon, although raw vegetables are major constituents of the national cuisine, studies on the safety of fresh produce are scant. This research employed a holistic approach to identify the different stages of the food chain that contribute to the microbiological risks on fresh produce and the spreading of hazards. A thorough analysis of the institutional and regulatory framework and the socio-political environment showed that the safety of local fresh produce in Lebanon is at risk due to largely unregulated practices and shortfalls in supporting the agricultural environment as influenced by the lack of a political commitment. Microbiological analysis showed that the faecal indicator levels ranged from < 0.7 to 7 log CFU/g (Escherichia coli), 1.69-8.16 log CFU/g (total coliforms) and followed a significantly increasing trend from fields to the post-harvest washing area. At washing areas, Salmonella was detected on lettuce (6.7% of raw vegetables from post-harvest washing areas). This suggested that post-harvest cross-contamination occurs predominantly in the washing stage. At retails, a combination of observation and self-reported data provided an effective tool in assessing knowledge, attitudes and practices. It showed that the food safety knowledge and sanitation practices of food handlers were inadequate, even among the better trained in corporate-managed SMEs. Overall, the microbiological quality of fresh-cut salad vegetables in SMEs was unsatisfactory. The link between Staphylococcus aureus and microorganism levels on fresh salads vegetables and the overall inspection scores could not be established. On the other hand, inspection ratings on individual components, e.g., cleanliness and cross-contamination preventive measures showed significant correlation with Listeria spp. levels. Together, results confirmed that inspection ratings don’t necessary reflect the microbiological safety of fresh vegetables and that the application of control points of risk factors that likely to contribute to microbial contamination in the production environment are essential. The washing methods were limited in their effectiveness to reduce the contamination of parsley with Salmonella. In general, the pre-wash chopping and storing of parsley at 30ºC reduced the decontamination effect of all solutions, including sodium dichloroisocyanurate which was reduced by 1.3 log CFU/g on both intact and chopped leaves stored at 30ºC. In such conditions, the transfer rate of Salmonella from one contaminated parsley to subsequently chopped clean batches on the same cutting board(CB) recorded 60%-64%. Furthermore, the transmission of Salmonella persisted via washed CBs stored at 30°C for 24 h. It is recommended to keep parsley leaves unchopped and stored at 5ºC until wash for an optimum decontamination effect and to apply vigilant sanitation of CBs after use with fresh produce. This research presented important data for quantitative risk assessment for Salmonella in parsley and useful descriptive information to inform decision-makers and educators on microbial hazards associated with fresh produce in Lebanon. It also highlighted the risks areas that require urgent interventions to improve food safety. Considering the complex institutional and political challenges in Lebanon, there is an obvious need to direct development programs and support towards local agriculture production, effective education strategies and growing awareness of consumers and stakeholders on food safety related risks.