Preventing food-borne illness in food service establishments: Broadening the framework for intervention and research on safe food handling behaviors.

Unsafe food handling practices in food establishments are a major contributor to transmission of food-borne illness. The paper evaluates predisposing influences (eg, knowledge, beliefs, perceived control, self-efficacy), enabling influences (eg, quality of training, work pressure and pace, safety protocols, appropriate equipment) and reinforcing influences (eg, management enforcement of policies, incentives, job stress and organizational justice) on worker behavior. Efforts to change food service workers’ behavior are more likely to be effective if they pay greater attention to the ecological context, address multiple influences on worker behavior, and view workers as partners in preventing food-borne illness. International Journal of Environmental Health Research 2007; 17(1):9-24.