The Food Safety Culture of a Night Market

Night markets are a popular food destination among tourists in Southeast Asia. The off-premise nature of these destinations resulting in higher risk for food contamination has brought about the need to improve food safety culture. Previous studies have focused primarily on food sanitation practices of vendors. However, food safety culture has been found as an effective means for improving safety practices in recent years by changing behavior and placing emphasis on food safety. The study determined the food safety culture of vendors of a night market in Cebu City. Findings shall be used as the basis for recommended guidelines on food safety specifically for night markets. This descriptive research utilized a survey questionnaire to 40-night market vendors. Results showed high mean scores in the indicators of leadership and coworker support, communication, work pressure, and self-commitment while lower scores on environment support and risk judgment. An employees' workload, provision of structural facilities and employee feedback are indicators that give rise to the level of food safety culture in an organization. The study highlights the role of management as results show food safety procedures are only followed at a certain extent but time and management pressures contribute to a decrease in following safe food handling.