Quantitative study of food safety climate in Belgian food processing companies in view of their organizational characteristics

The impact of organizational characteristics on food safety management systems is already intensively studied. Recently, scientific research goes beyond the managerial and technical aspects of the food safety management system, incorporating the impact of human behavior by exploring the food safety climate in food companies. In this study the food safety climate in the Belgian food processing industry was investigated and correlations between food safety climate and organizational (general and quality-related) characteristics of food processing companies were assessed. Additionally, the factorial validity of the applied food safety climate assessment tool was investigated, using exploratory factor analysis. Data were gathered through an online survey. Overall, the food safety climate was perceived to be on a good level for most of the 136 responding companies. Companies with multiple sites in Belgium appeared to perceive the food safety climate better than one-site companies. Food companies providing more than one training session per year appeared to perceive their food safety climate significantly better than companies providing less training (p < .001). For the other organizational characteristics investigated (such as company size, sector, presence of quality department, time spent on quality control, certification, available budget for maintaining the FSMS) no significant correlations with the food safety climate could be proven. Exploratory factor analysis revealed the existence of 4 underlying factors: factor 1 mainly dealing with 'leadership related' indicators, factor 2 with 'resources related' indicators, factor 3 with 'communication related' indicators and factor 4 is a mix of mainly 'risk awareness related' indicators and some 'commitment related' indicators.