SRA-E Lisbon 2017

It is estimated that a positive food safety culture can provide best practices in food handling, thereby reducing sanitary risk. Food safety culture can be defined as "shared attitudes, values and beliefs about food safety behaviors that are routinely demonstrated in food handling," and can be assessed through six factors: management systems, style and process; leadership; communication; commitment; environment; risk perception (Griffith et al. 2010). The aim of this presentation is to discuss the interaction of foodborne disease (FDB) risk perception and optimistic bias of leaders and food handlers with the sanitary risk degree in military food services, permeating the training of handlers to establish a positive food safety culture. In partnership with the Ministry of Defense of the Brazilian government, a diagnosis was made of the elements of food safety culture in an army feeding service, in order to propose actions for a sanitary risk-based training program. For this presentation two important elements of the food safety culture will be in focus: risk perception and management system that includes sanitary risk assessment. The risk perception was evaluated through a structured scale with seven options anchored in the intensity descriptors -3 (extremely low) to +3 (extremely high) (Raats et al. 1999); from the risk perception questionnaire, the optimistic bias was identified (Da Cunha et al. 2015). For the evaluation of the sanitary risk degree, a checklist was used to assess hygienic-sanitary conditions based on risk criteria (Da Cunha et al. 2014). The food service was evaluated with a high degree of risk, due to the inadequacies in the use of the time and temperature and in the hygiene of the food. There was a low risk perception of FDB in leaders and food handlers, but the optimistic/pessimistic bias among them was not perceived, demonstrating that they understand the low risk in their food handling and in the way their peers manipulate them. The absence of optimistic/pessimistic bias strengthens the existing commitment among the group members and the formation of a team that emerges in the group studied, possibly linked by the military education. Therefore, minimizing optimistic bias, working on team formation and group commitment and increasing the risk perception are factors that point to a new look at the training of food handlers based on the premises of the systematic training model with a positive influence on food safety culture reducing the sanitary risk.