EduAsiaNews, Dunedin — The University of Otago, New Zealand, has launched the Food Safety Culture Lab, the country’s first multidisciplinary research group dedicated to examining human behavioural factors as the root cause of food safety failures. The lab is designed to investigate how workers in the food industry navigate safety systems, balance operational pressures, manage uncertainty, and respond to risk — including risks that can trigger dangerous illnesses such as Salmonella, Listeria, and Campylobacter infections.
The initiative stems from growing concern that stringent food safety regulations alone are insufficient to guarantee compliance on the ground. Lead researcher and behavioural scientist at Otago’s Department of Food Science, Prof. Miranda Mirosa, noted that the food industry does in fact operate under very strict rules and safety policies, yet staff do not always follow them. “When we trace how someone became ill, the cause is often that someone didn’t follow the rules,” said Mirosa. She identified a range of contributing factors, from a lack of knowledge and skills, language barriers, and low motivation, to workplace layouts that make it difficult for workers to do the right thing.
The laboratory is co-led by Distinguished Professor Phil Bremer, a food safety and microbiology expert who also serves as Chief Scientist at the New Zealand Food Safety Science & Research Centre (NZFSSRC), and involves a number of researchers and postgraduate students, including Dr. Wendy Newport-Smith, who specialises in food safety culture and ethical leadership. The research team will work directly with food companies to identify problems and co-design practical solutions.
The laboratory aims to produce evidence-based recommendations on how to effectively measure, implement, and sustain food safety culture across New Zealand’s food sector. Interventions being developed may include training modules, situation-based reminders, and brief safety-focused discussion sessions. Prof. Mirosa stressed that global attention to food safety culture is growing stronger, and that the lab will strive to drive the long-term development of the practice as a collective, scientifically grounded approach throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. (**)
