From leadership research to district action: Food Safety Culture and Education: A Cross-Sectional Study in Southern Italy

AI-assisted editorial implementation guide. Proposed district actions are separate from the original authors’ findings and recommendations. Independent peer review of this guide is not asserted.

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Evidence and transfer

Education-related source: verify which participants, institutions and outcomes were actually studied before district adoption. Source publication type: research-article. License and identity checks do not establish study quality or causality.

Original authors’ abstract, reproduced under the source license:

At present, food safety culture (FSC) is a strategic dimension of food management systems, as established by EU Regulation 2021/382. Understanding how individual and organizational factors influence the safety climate is essential for designing effective training interventions. A cross-sectional observational study was conducted in Southern Italy from March to September 2025 among 216 workers from 52 food businesses located in the provinces of Bari and Barletta-Andria-Trani, using a questionnaire based on a validated scale, which is structured into five dimensions of leadership, communication, commitment, risk awareness, and resources. Descriptive analyses, χ2 tests, and multivariate logistic regressions were conducted to identify predictors of positive perceptions. The overall climate was positive for 82.9% of the sample. The strongest dimensions were leadership (88.4%), communication (86.1%), and risk awareness (84.7%), while resources were identified as a critical area (41.2% of respondents perceived deficiencies, especially in personnel and infrastructure). Overall, the results confirm that FSC is significantly influenced by ongoing training, cultural awareness and job stability. Resource-related challenges indicate a need for greater management investment to concretely support food safety practices.

Study methods

This cross-sectional observational study was conducted in Southern Italy in the northern macro-area of the province of Bari and the province of Barletta-Andria-Trani (BAT). The study population consisted of FBOs operating in 52 food businesses subjected to official controls between March and September 2025 by the Competent Local Health Authorities, specifically the Food Hygiene and Nutrition Services of the Bari Local Health Authority (Northern Area) and the BT Local Health Authority. Overall, the target population included 479 FBOs. Sample size calculation was therefore based on these data, with a 95% confidence level and a 5% margin of error, assuming p = 0.5 (maximum variability). Applying finite population correction, the minimum required sample size was determined to be 214 participants, ensuring both adequate statistical power and adequate representativeness.

Limitations

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A 90-day district inquiry

Days 1–15 · Appraise. Read the source methods, recruitment, comparator, outcomes and limitations. Record how the study setting differs from your district and which claim the design can support.
Days 16–30 · Design. Choose one school improvement question with teachers. Protect a short shared planning cycle, agree an instructional change and use a common rubric for examining student work. Agree participation, privacy protections, baseline and stopping rules before starting.
Days 31–60 · Observe. Collect the pre-agreed measures, keep a log of implementation changes and invite confidential voluntary feedback. Preserve existing support for staff and learners.
Days 61–90 · Decide. Review implementation fidelity, teacher time and independently scored student work against a recorded baseline. Examine access differences and competing explanations before attributing changes to leadership. Make a dated decision to stop, revise or extend the inquiry.

Board decision brief

Present the local problem, source setting, evidence limits, intervention, responsible owner, total cost, measured changes and uncertainty. Separate staff perceptions, implementation measures and student learning outcomes.

Attribution and reuse

Piersaverio Marzocca; Vito Cerabona; Vincenzo Marcotrigiano; Umberto Farina; Teresa Tarricone; Ylenia Tatoli; Michele Lampedecchia; Giacomo Domenico Stingi; Caterina Spinelli; Maria Grazia Forte; Roberto Rizzi; Annamaria Dalena; Sandro Cinquetti; Giovanni Normanno; Maria Teresa Montagna; Christian Napoli; Osvalda De Giglio; Giuseppina Caggiano. Food Safety Culture and Education: A Cross-Sectional Study in Southern Italy. Foods (2025-11-28). https://doi.org/10.3390/foods14234095

Prepared 2026-11-07. Source authorship and DOI are preserved. The abstract and source passages are attributed extracts; this editorial guide is offered under the same CC BY 4.0 license.