Effective implementation of food safety initiatives: Managers’, food safety coordinators’ and production workers’ perspectives

The purpose of this research is to identify factors motivating HACCP implementation in small and medium food companies, factors essential to successful implementation, and challenges during implementation. Twenty-two semi-structured interviews were conducted with various personnel in eight establishments in Ontario. These generated 239 pages of transcribed data. Trends and patterns in the data were identified using NVivo7 software. The main motivating factors were the likelihood of future regulation, the value of HACCP for marketing, and avoiding food safety problems. Management commitment was the most commonly cited element of successful implementation. Food safety managers/coordinators faced the greatest variety of challenges during implementation.