A Qualitative Investigation of the Role of Food Workers in U.S. Food Safety

Food workers;food safety;food policy;food systems;Social & Behavioral Sciences

Clayton, Megan LinneaPollack, Keshia M. ;

Johns Hopkins University

关键词: Food workers;    food safety;    food policy;    food systems;    Social & Behavioral Sciences;   

Others  :  https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/bitstream/handle/1774.2/40662/CLAYTON-DISSERTATION-2015.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: JOHNS HOPKINS DSpace Repository

【 摘 要 】

Food safety requires that food producers, processors, distributors, and retailers assure the public of a food supply that is safe, of wholesome quality, and managed under sanitary conditions. Our global, industrial food system makes this task a challenge, however, and foodborne disease represents a significant problem in the United States. To close the gap between actual and desired food safety performance, stakeholders must consider the role of various parts of the food system, including workers, who impact the food supply through health and behavior. Research examining the relationship between work and health suggests a role for working conditions in shaping workers’ proper food safety practice. Despite this evidence, food workers experience poor wages and working conditions. The division between food safety goals and the state of food work suggests a need to review how we define the relationship between food workers and safety, and to consider how this definition may include the working conditions that put workers and food at risk.This dissertation uses a qualitative approach to describe the role of food workers in food safety as constructed by federal food safety regulations and as perceived by food workers in the context of their everyday lives and work experiences. This research also explores the perspectives of representatives from key stakeholder groups to identify opportunities and challenges for advancing poor food working conditions as an issue of food safety on the public policy agenda.Findings suggest that a modern and prevention-oriented U.S. food safety system places little emphasis on workers’ social and structural context, including poor food working conditions, in accounting for worker-related food safety. In contrast, workers are largely defined and managed as sources of contamination through individual factors, such as a lack of food safety knowledge and skills that may be intervened upon through training. These legal constructions of the issue contrast with food workers’ identification of a range of factors, at multiple levels, that are perceived to impact proper food safety practice. According to key stakeholder groups, addressing this gap may be complex, and revolve around effectively communicating the connection among issues while also protecting food workers and advancing their wellbeing. Despite these challenges, recommendations are made regarding where, how, and with whom public health advocates may begin to advance this issue on the public policy agenda.