Correlation of time spent on food safety training and opinions, knowledge, and prevention practices of foodborne illness and allergic reactions to food of owners of independently owned/operated restaurants

Currently, more than 7 out of 10 restaurants in the United States are independently owned or single-unit operations.1 The impact these restaurants can have on the total burden of foodborne illness and allergic reactions to food is immense. The purpose of this study is to determine if there is a correlation between the time spent on food safety training and the opinions, knowledge, and prevention practices of foodborne illness and allergic reactions to food of owners of independently owned and operated restaurants. In this study, the time spent on food safety training is defined as either a) time in minutes spent on food safety training when first hired, or b) frequency of food safety training (at hire, weekly, monthly, annually, or as needed). The study only identified weak, insignificant correlations between time spent on food safety training and opinions, knowledge, and prevention practices of owners of independently owned restaurants. Most P values were α > 0.05, and correlation coefficients, r, found were closer to 0 than to 1, indicating weaker correlations. More studies should focus on determining if there is a correlation between these variables so that proper amount of training can be provided to employees to prevent foodborne illness and allergic reactions to foods. Understanding the amount of time needed to be spent on employee food safety training upon hire, and the frequency of training required to impact opinions, increase their knowledge, and develop proper prevention practices could influence how these restaurants train their employees on the prevention of foodborne illness and allergic reactions to food.