TY  - JOUR
AB  - Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine food safety behaviors of consumers and employees at university food courts.Design/methodology/approach Using a smartphone-based observation technique, a total of 149 consumers and 34 employees were observed at three food courts at a mid-western university in the USA. The observational tool recorded 30 sequential transactions of each individual, allowing researchers to identify the compliance rate to the rubric. Both descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis of variance were used for data analysis.Findings This study found a low compliance rate of food safety practices among consumers and employees at university food courts. Consumers’ food safety practices varied depending on gender, observed ethnicity and party size, while none of those factors was significant for employees. Specifically, females, Caucasians, and lone diners showed higher non-compliance rates than those of males, non-Caucasians and group diners.Research limitations/implications The results of the study raise the pressing needs of developing effective risk communication strategies at university food courts for both consumers and employees in order to reduce the potential risk of foodborne illness outbreaks.Originality/value University food courts are not only major foodservice operations for on-campus populations as well as off-campus visitors and the local public, but also the presence of shared dining area pertains the potential risk of foodborne illnesses. However, lack of attention has been paid to the food safety issues at university food courts, and especially food safety behaviors of consumers. This study extended the knowledge of previous food safety literature by adopting a smartphone-based observation technique and developing a rubric customized for consumers and employees at university food courts.
VL  - 119
IS  - 7
SN  - 0007-070X
DO  - 10.1108/BFJ-10-2016-0472
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-10-2016-0472
AU  - Her EunSol
AU  - Seo Soobin
AU  - Choi Jihee
AU  - Pool Victor
AU  - Ilic Sanja
PY  - 2017
Y1  - 2017/01/01
TI  - Observed food safety behaviors among consumers and employees in university food courts
T2  - British Food Journal
PB  - Emerald Publishing Limited
SP  - 1619
EP  - 1632
Y2  - 2024/04/24
ER  -