Food integrity climate in food businesses: Conceptualization, development, and validation of a self-assessment tool

Abstract

Current scientific research and industry guidelines focus on food safety, aiming to reduce unintentional food contaminations through technological and managerial measures. Due to the deceptive nature of food fraud, the fight to prevent intentional food adulteration and counterfeiting threats requires an approach that goes beyond the common food safety-based strategies and falls into the sphere of food integrity. With food integrity being an emerging discipline, a definition was proposed and the concept of food integrity climate was introduced. A food integrity climate (FIC) self-assessment tool in the form of a questionnaire, with twenty indicators and a five-point Likert rating scale was developed, expert-validated, and tested in practice in a large-scale meat distribution company. The questionnaire was designed to measure the performance level of food integrity in food businesses along the supply chain through managers’ and operators’ perceptions. Minor but interesting differences were found in the food integrity climate perceived between managers and operators as well as among the company’s affiliates. The tool helps food businesses to get a deeper insight on the human dimension behind food integrity through the assessment of five climate components in relation to four food integrity elements, identifying strengths and weaknesses regarding a company’s food integrity climate.