Model Development of Food Safety with Community Participation Kamphaeng Phet Province

Abstract

This study has two main objectives: 1) to identify factors and components related to food safety operations, and 2) to develop a community-involved food safety operational model.              The research is divided into three phases: 1) survey research, selecting 200 samples by simple random sampling; 2) participatory action research, selecting 10 key informants by purposive sampling; and 3) connoisseurship, selecting 7 experts by purposive sampling. The research design was a mixed-method sequential exploratory study, starting with a quantitative study followed by a qualitative study. The findings reveal that the majority of the sample group is female (60.0%) with an average age of 44 years and 10 months. Most entrepreneurs are involved in bottled water production (82.2%) in municipal and rural areas (55.0% and 45.0%, respectively). Significant correlations exist between variables related to food safety operations, including knowledge of food safety, information access, understanding, data evaluation, and decision-making abilities; r= .169, .267, .263, .211, .233, and .237, respectively. Structural equation modeling shows that knowledge components related to food safety and health significantly influence food safety operations (23.0% and 17.0%, respectively). model fit c² = 24.061, P =0.088, DF = 16, CMIN/DF = 1.504, RMR = 0.143, GFI = 0.974, AGFI = 0.928, RMSEA= 0.050. The participation research showed that the operating model for food safety with community participation consists of six steps from the evaluation of connoisseurship that can be put into practice to be effective. The result suggests that policymakers should support entrepreneurs in implementing successful food safety operations with community involvement.