A tool to benchmark the food safety management systems in Greece
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop and implement methods to benchmark the food safety and hygiene of different companies, regardless the management systems applied.
Design/methodology/approach
The data were collected using a balanced questionnaire which was based on the fishbone model of Ishikawa. The questionnaire includes general questions about the company and 25 questions about personnel, machinery, materials, methods and environment. It was applied to 202 food industries, 42 food retail businesses and 49 food service companies. The data were collected from interviews of industry people related to food safety and from audits of business facilities. The benchmarking methods were descriptive statistics, radar charts, cluster analysis and association rules.
Findings
The radar charts were used to benchmark food companies on safety and hygiene. Food companies can be evaluated with this benchmarking tool with a balanced score of maximum 100 points.
Originality/value
This benchmarking tool could be useful for food control authorities, clusters of companies and certification bodies.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Athanasios Kotsalis for the helpful assistance to organize the primary data. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Citation
Souliotis, A., Giazitzi, K. and Boskou, G. (2018), "A tool to benchmark the food safety management systems in Greece", Benchmarking: An International Journal, Vol. 25 No. 8, pp. 3206-3224. https://doi.org/10.1108/BIJ-02-2017-0028
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited