Food recalls caused by pathogens receive considerable public attention due to health risk and the potential loss to the companies involved. There are very few studies analyzing the relationship between food recalls and characteristics of the companies involved. Because of the significance of the problem and lack of available research, the association between food recalls caused by pathogen and characteristics of the companies involved is examined in this thesis. To address the problem, data on food product recalls in the United States from January 2000 to October 2009 are used. Only the events caused by pathogens are analyzed in the thesis. The firms that have multiple recall incidents are the units of analysis. The study employs an econometric model with discrete choice modeling approaches: logit and probit. There are two main hypotheses. Firstly, it is hypothesized that branding decreases the likelihood of the occurrence of the repeated recall event. Secondly, size of the firm is hypothesized to be associated with higher likelihood of recurrence. The major finding is that branding and firm size are associated with higher probability of the recurrence of food recall events associated with pathogenic contamination. A firm that produces branded products is around 15 percent more likely to have a recurrence of food recall events than a firm producing unbranded product. This finding points out the interesting and unexpected issue that branding is not associated with improved performance in food safety. Additionally, an increase in firm size has a minute but significant association with rising likelihood to have a recurrence of a food recall event. This study is the first concerning the firm level factors that can influence risk of the recurrence of food recall incidents involving pathogens. Thus, its results are distinctive and can benefit both government and private sectors with respect to food safety policy or food safety standards.

Romaine lettuce and leafy greens have been at the center of food safety concerns over the last several years. More specifically, romaine lettuce has been directly linked to seven(7) foodborne illness outbreaks and resulted in five(5) recalls over the eight(8) years period of January 1, 2012, to December 31, 2019. This paper estimates the effects that these food safety events have had on the price returns of romaine lettuce utilizing a series of Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (GARCH) models. Importantly, the GARCH models allowed us to capture the effects of the recall and illness outbreaks on both the returns and volatility of the romaine price series. We find that three (3) of the seven (7) illness outbreaks resulted in marked increases in the price returns - between 4.1% and 9.6%. Conversely, three (3) of the five (5) recalls reduced price returns - between 30% and 57%. However, the volatility is not found to be significantly nor to affect the price volatility significantly. We conclude that recalls serve as a market correction in the romaine lettuce market. Consequently, a continued focus on increasing traceability with in the romaine lettuce market will help to reduce price fluctuation and limit the number of illnesses resulting from outbreaks. / Master of Science / Romaine lettuce and leafy greens have been at the center of food safety concerns over the last several years. More specifically, romaine lettuce has been directly linked to 7 foodborne illness outbreaks and resulted in 5 recalls over the eight years, January 1, 2012, to December 31, 2019. This paper estimates the effects that these food safety events have had on the price returns of romaine lettuce. It was found that 3 of the seven illness outbreaks resulted in marked increases in the price returns - between 4.1% and 9.6% while, 3 of the 5 recalls reduced price returns - between 30% and 57%. However, the volatility is not found to be significantly nor to affect the price volatility significantly. It is concluded that recalls serve as a market correction in the romaine lettuce market. A continued focus on increasing traceability with in the romaine lettuce market will help to reduce price fluctuation and limit the number of illnesses resulting from outbreaks.

The powerful technical capabilities of smartphones offer unprecedented opportunities for collecting dietary information. We have developed an enhanced smartphone application called MyEnergyBalance, which permits imaged-based self-monitoring of all foods consumed, and links to a convenient and user-friendly web-based dietary assessment tool. The primary objective of this pilot study was to determine if the MyEnergyBalance app (with use of images) in combination of the associated website improves dietary recall compared to diet analysis on the MyEnergyBalance website alone. We also generated preliminary data on the usability of the MyEnergyBalance iPhone app and website. This pilot study was a crossover study design of healthy, college students. Participants were randomly assigned to two groups. Both groups consumed their normal diet for the first day with one group recording their food intake with image functions of the MyEnergyBalance app, while the other group did not use the app. On the second day, all participants logged into the MyEnergyBalance website to record their food intake from the previous day; one group using the images from the app to assist in recalling what they ate, while the other group recalled what they ate from memory. The diet analysis results were compared to those obtained using the ASA24 website. The groups were then crossed over to the opposite vs no-image assisted recalls. Ten participants (seven females and three males) aged 20 to 22 years completed this study. The average BMI of all participants was 23.12 kg/m2 (ranging from 18.95 to 32.28 kg/m2). There was no statistically significant differences in the estimates of the energy intake between the MyEnergyBalance app and website compared to ASA24. The SUS mean score for the MyEnergyBalance app and website was 86 and 69.5, respectively. A strong, negative correlation was found between the system usability scale scores and the absolute differences in energy intake of the MyEnergyBalance app and ASA24. Although we were not able to demonstrate a significant benefit of the images from the iPhone app at improving food recall (perhaps due to the small study sample size), we were able to demonstrate a high usability score for the iPhone app, average usability score for the website, and a significant correlation between subjects' usability scores and relative accuracy of the subjects' food recall using the images from the iPhone app. A future study with a larger sample size will hopefully provide more information on the efficacy of image-based food recalls.

<p>Food safety is important to prevent foodborne illnesses that can negatively affect public health and the economy. Preventative measures can be taken by government agencies, food-related workers, and consumers to reduce the occurrence of such illnesses. This paper examines the impact of government policies on food safety from the perspective of consumers, restaurant employees and employers, and food processing workers. The first essay explores how food safety recalls affect consumer behavior. The second essay studies the impact of minimum wage policies on service quality in the restaurant industry. The third essay investigates the effect of minimum wage policies on product food safety in the meat and poultry processing industry. </p>

Food safety problems have gained national attention, and food recall is one of the most important indications of this concern. Third-party certifications have become a popular way to improve the safety and quality of products for consumers. Publications related to third-party certification usually focus on the motives and benefits of a particular certification. However, to date, no existing research investigates the effects of food recalls on certification adoption. This study uses Probit models with a binary endogenous explanatory variable to examine the relationship between food recalls and third-party certification, based on recalls occurring between January 1, 2015 and February 18, 2016. Marginal effects are used to interpret the impact of recalls and companies’ annual net sales on third-party certification adoption. Results reveal that past recalls significantly affect a firm’s likelihood of certification adoption.

The safety of the food supply in the United States has become an issue of prominence in the minds of ordinary Americans. Several government agencies, including the United States Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration, are charged with the responsibility of preserving the safety of the food supply. Food is withdrawn from the market in a product recall when tainted or mislabeled and has the potential to harm the consumer in some manner. This research examines recall events issued by firms over the period of January, 2000 through October, 2009 in the United States. Utilizing economic and management theory to establish predictions, this study employs the Cox proportional hazard regression model to analyze the effects of firm size and branding on the risk of recall recurrence. The size of the firm was measured in both billions of dollars of sales and in thousands of employees. Branding by the firm was measured as a binary variable that expressed if a firm had a brand and as a count of the number of brands within a firm. This study also provides a descriptive statistical analysis and several findings based on the recall data specifically relating to annual occurrences, geographical locations of the firms involved, types of products recalled, and reasons for recall. We hypothesized that the increasing firm size would be associated with increased relative risk of a recall event while branding and an increasing portfolio of brands would be associated with decreased relative risk of a recall event. However, it was found that increased firm size and branding by the firm are associated with an increased risk of recall occurrence. The results of this research can have implications on food safety standards in both the public and private sectors.