Identification of Sanitation Job Tasks for Food Manufacturers Using a Modified Delphi Approach

Identifying core job tasks for sanitation-related roles in the food industry is critical to ensure that sanitation nonconformances in the field are mitigated and that companies maintain a well-qualified food sanitation workforce. Due to the rise in food safety sanitation concerns and undertrained staff, it is imperative to have a streamlined approach to recruitment, including a list of common expectations and training programs for newly hired workers and all employees performing sanitation-related practices. This study aimed to identify and refine job tasks that sanitation operators, managers, and business owners can expect to perform in a food production space using the modified Delphi method and inform a hybrid sanitation training program (online modules and in-person, hands-on activities) for small food processors. The Delphi method allowed for the inclusion of professionals representing various sectors of food safety who provided valuable perspectives based on their experiences in the field. Ten experts representing food safety professionals in academia, sanitation chemical companies, and industry were given two rounds of questionnaires that specified initial sanitation job tasks and subsequent competencies for three tiers of sanitation roles. The prospective job roles and job responsibilities that were to be addressed in a series of online modules were included in the questionnaire and ranked using a 5-point Likert scale of varying levels from “strongly agree” (5) that our list included the correct job tasks for a respective role within a food safety system (operators/temporary hires, managers (quality managers, sanitarian, and plant managers), and CEOs or business owners), to “strongly disagree” (1) that our list included the correct job tasks for a respective role within a food safety system. Participants were then allowed to add new job tasks to our list if they felt any were omitted. Round 2 of the Delphi was prefaced with an updated draft of the JTA for each role, which was revised to include a more finite list of job roles and competencies based on survey results and add-on job tasks from round 1. Participants were asked to follow the same procedure again in round 2. Consensus (acceptance criterion) was based on a 75% agreement ranking, with a rating of “4” or greater. 182 Food Protection Trends March/April The prospective job roles and responsibilities to be addressed in the in-person modules of our program were ranked differently than the online module content. The Delphi survey asked participants to use a ranking system (rank the 8 in-person topics on a scale from 1–8 in the first Delphi round), how important it was to include specific topics in our final programming. Rankings ranged from “extremely important to include this topic in our final in-person hands-on programming” (which would place the respective topic in 1st place out of 8) to “not important at all that the topic be included in our final in-person hands-on program.” Following the initial ranking questions, respondents were also asked to provide justifications and/or additions to the list. After the 1st round of questionnaires, revisions were made to the original document based on consensus and open-ended text responses. Since a small population took the survey, and for programming length considerations, round 2 narrowed down the final list of hands-on topics from 8 to 6. The subsequent questionnaire (round 2) reflected these revisions, and the “final” format was presented to the panelists after analysis. This study presents the JTA framework as both a guideline for setting expectations of a food sanitation team within a production environment and a resource for training providers developing advanced sanitation curricula. This work identifies a Job Task list which can be used by food safety educators or processors responsible for training to develop competency and skill-based training metrics for sanitation