Menu, Journal of Food and Hospitality Research Volume 1, 2012, Pages 27-36
Theoretical Models of Good Hygiene Practices Training: current approaches and perspectives
Stéphane Desaulty Université de Toulouse 2 - Le Mirail & & Institut Paul Bocuse Research Center
DOI: https://doi.org/10.26048/pvzv-nw85 Abstract: Foodborne diseases are a real problem for both public health and food industry managers. Because mishandling is a major cause of infection, Good Hygiene Practices trainings are mandatory for all food workers. Literature data suggests that the efficiency of these trainings is limited. If trainings increase food workers knowledge and behavioral intention, hygiene practices at work are often unchanged. This fact challenges the models used for good hygiene training design.
This article aims to review current theoretical models and to propose a new approach, based upon more psychological aspects of decision making. In this new approach, application of good hygiene practices is vieedw as a decision about sanitary risk: food workers are required daily to take decisions linked to a sanitary risk of food. Actually, food workers seem to have consequent knowledge about these risks but may take bad decisions. Risk representation and risk perception are known to be important features of this kind of decisions. Thus, they might be a key to understand why, despite knowledge, deviance to good practices occurs.
For this reason, a cognitive approach is proposed to study food workers reasoning and decision making using a psychological theory of decision making under risk and future researches are presented.
