Psychosocial and organizational determinants of safe food handling at retail and food service establishments: a systematic review and meta-analysis

ABSTRACTVarious psychosocial and organizational factors have been investigated as determinants of food handlers’ food safety behaviours. A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies in this area was conducted to identify and synthesize the key behavioural determinants. Standard systematic review steps were followed: comprehensive search strategy; relevance screening; article characterization; risk of bias assessment; data extraction; and random-effects meta-analysis. Sixty-two relevant studies were identified, and knowledge was the most commonly investigated behavioural determinant (n = 51). Increased knowledge was consistently associated with safe food handing behaviours across both correlation (r = 0.30; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.12, 0.46; n = 24 studies; I2 = 98%) and odds ratio (OR) measures (adjusted OR = 1.85; 95% CI: 1.27, 2.70; n = 3; I2 = 0%). Seven other behavioural determinant categories were also consistently associated with various food safety behaviour outcomes. In contrast, no ass...