Managing HACCP : micro-business perspectives on the benefits of a regulated food safety management system

• Main Author: Kane, Kevin James
• Published: University of Salford 2009
• Subjects: 338.0068
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.517495

The introduction, in January 2006, of a regulatory requirement for all food businesses in the EU to adopt the seven principles of the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) system of food safety management, has major implications in terms of compliance for small and micro-sized food businesses in the catering sector of the food industry. The difficulties of small food businesses in coping with HACCP are well reported in the academic literature, but less attention has been paid to the advantages (termed benefits in this study) that might accrue to small and, in particular, very small or micro-businesses which implement and maintain the system. This thesis describes a research study to determine the ex-post benefits of Safer Food Better Business, a system based on HACCP principles (SFBB/SBHP) which is compliant with EU regulations. The study is focused on the benefits perceived by catering micro-business owner-managers in the North West of England. It is a qualitative, retrospective study utilizing a case study methodology involving a triangulated three stage research design consisting of a set of convergent interviews followed by 25 individual case interviews and 2 focus group interviews and the production of a ranked list of scored benefits. This study reports that 9 benefits from SFBB/SBHP are perceived by catering microbusiness owner managers, these being improvements in confidence, communications, motivation, and relationship with their Environmental Health Officer; also reported are the benefits of an improvement in product quality, waste, errors, profits and customer complaints. These 9 benefits are ranked in terms of their importance to the owner-managers. The results of this study are important in terms of regulatory and enforcement policy and business practice. The results may help to encourage the use of HACCP in micro-businesses, and provide policy makers, academics and enforcement officials with useful data on the benefits of adopting HACCP based systems as perceived by the users of these systems.