ADVANCEMENT OF THE SCIENCE
These findings can inform eorts by health departments to provide eective food safety messaging to food workers. Restaurant own- ers and managers can also use these findings when training food workers. Creating a plan on how sta are trained, who conducts the training (e.g., supervisor, CFPM), frequency of trainings, and what topics are covered will ensure that all food workers receive adequate food safety information. Food worker perceptions of inspection and relationships with inspectors were over- whelmingly positive. These findings were contrary to research done in New Zealand and Australia, which found that individu- als who work in the food industry often had distrust for regulatory sta and believed that regulations were based on larger political agendas (Meyer et al., 2017). Respondents to our survey reported that inspections were beneficial, and the majority of food workers would not change the cur- rent process. Conversations with inspectors were the second most common method by which food workers are receiving food safety information, and a top response in how work- ers preferred to receive food safety informa- tion. Inspections are designed to capture the current food safety practices and policies in place at an establishment. Many inspectors, however, go beyond enforcing the food code by providing educa- tion and training to food workers during an inspection. Cultivating relationships with food workers by being available and will- ing to answer questions—without repercus- sions such as a written citation—is extremely important in developing trust between regu- lators and food workers (Meyer et al., 2017). Respondents who reported that they would like to make a change to the inspection pro- cess mentioned several times having sched- uled and/or announced inspections and bet- ter consistency among inspectors and across agencies (i.e., local versus state). For the most part, regulatory agencies across Minnesota conduct unannounced inspections; however, one local agency within Minnesota found that when inspections were scheduled, fewer violations occurred in two categories: 1) demonstration of knowledge by the PIC and 2) prevention of cross-contamination (Reske et al., 2007). Additional research to exam- ine the benefits of scheduled inspections is warranted. The need for consistency across
TABLE 3
Perceptions of the Inspection Process From Minnesota Food Workers ( N = 1,535)
Question
#
%
In general, how beneficial are health department inspections? Very beneficial
736 634
48 41
Somewhat beneficial Not at all beneficial
83 82
5
Unsure 5 Is there anything you would want to change about your inspection process by the health department? Yes 265 17 No 1,079 70 I’m not involved in health inspections 191 12 Please rate your overall satisfaction of interactions with your inspector. Very satisfied 880 57 Somewhat satisfied 280 18 Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied 176 12 Somewhat dissatisfied 31 2 Very dissatisfied 14 1 I don’t interact with my inspector 154 10
agencies and among inspectors is extremely important, and MDH and our delegated agen- cies work to ensure inspections are standard- ized among inspectors and across agencies. For the most part, respondents reported that relationships between food workers and inspectors did not change due to the COVID- 19 pandemic, and there were more reports of relationships improving rather than worsen- ing. During the pandemic, state regulations required restaurants to close for a period of time; they were then allowed only to open for take-out service for a number of months, under additional precautionary require- ments. Inspectors were required to enforce these orders; anecdotal reports indicate that some inspectors were harassed during their enforcement visits. Our findings are posi- tive, as they suggest that, overall, food work- ers did not feel that their relationships with their health inspectors had changed because of the pandemic. Our findings identified several gaps when it comes to employee illness reporting behav- iors, though. There is a substantial portion of food workers who do not report vomiting or diarrhea to management, mainly because they do not want to lose their shift and/or are
concerned about consequences from man- agement. These findings are consistent with other research that shows that the reasons workers work while sick are complex and multifactorial (Carpenter et al., 2013), and contextual factors need to be addressed to create change in food worker behavior (Year- gin et al., 2021). Additionally, social or economic pres- sures such as not wanting to leave cowork- ers short-staed or concerns of losing a job contribute to employees working while ill (Carpenter et al., 2013). With norovirus being the most common cause of outbreaks in food establishments and ill workers being the most cited contributing factor (Moritz et al., 2023), restaurant management needs to take an active role in creating a culture of food safety that encourages employees to stay home when they are sick (Kramer et al., 2023; McFarland et al., 2019). Having a written employee illness plan, training work- ers on what is required of them regarding ill- ness reporting and to stay home while sick, oering paid sick leave, letting sta make up shifts, and cross-training sta could allevi- ate social and economic pressures associated with calling out sick (Moritz et al., 2023).
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Volume 86 • Num)er 10
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