Modern Food Systems Challenged by Food Safety Culture

Abstract

Despite decades of regulatory development, standardized food safety management systems, and technological advances, foodborne outbreaks, recalls, and food fraud con-tinue to pose significant public health and societal challenges. These persistent failures increasingly reveal systemic vulnerabilities that deficiencies in legislation or formal control mechanisms alone cannot explain. Instead, they highlight the critical role of human behaviour, organizational culture, and socio-technical interactions within modern, complex agrifood networks. Food safety culture has therefore emerged as a key determi-nant of food safety performance, linking regulatory frameworks with everyday practices in food establishments. While HACCP-based systems clearly define procedures and responsibilities, their effectiveness is limited when behavioural consistency, leadership commitment, communication, and resource availability are weak. Research consistently shows that even well-designed systems are insufficiently monitored when organizational alignment and behavioural adherence are lacking, allowing deviations from safe practices to persist. Contemporary approaches move beyond compliance-driven mod-els towards cultural transformation, emphasizing leadership engagement, effective risk communication, learning-oriented environments, and evidence-based behavioural in-terventions. Increasingly, digital tools and real-time monitoring systems support this transition by strengthening feedback, transparency, and adaptive risk management across food systems. Strengthening food safety culture therefore requires coordinated, multi-level action that integrates governance, technology and human-oriented ap-proaches. Such transformation is essential not only for improving food safety outcomes but also for protecting public health, maintaining consumer trust and enhancing the long-term resilience and sustainability of modern food systems.