Association between the financial situation of food production establishments and food control inspection grades in Finland

Abstract

The repeated violation of food safety legislation by food business operators (FBOs) constitutes a health risk for consumers. However, the possibilities for recognizing these FBOs at an early stage are limited. This study aimed to investigate the association between the financial situation of Finnish FBOs and the food control inspection grades that their food production establishments received. Our hypothesis was that a weak financial situation would increase the risk of recurring non-compliance. We used food control inspection reports on meat, fish, and dairy establishments in Finland from 2016 to 2020 (612 establishments) and the publicly available financial statements of these companies. Due to missing financial data and stringent requirements for case-control pairs, 45 case-control pairs and 88 cases were analysed. The cases included food production establishments with non-compliances in recurring years. Randomized matched controls were paired for each case. The analyses showed that the likelihood of belonging to the case group was lower when the food production establishment's operating margin, describing profitability, was in the best-performing tertile (OR = 0.21, p = 0.01) or the middle tertile (OR = 0.22, p = 0.03) compared to the worst-performing tertile. Furthermore, a trend was observed within the cases, showing that the likelihood of non-compliances during a year was lower when the current ratio (ln), describing liquidity, increased (generalized estimating equations, OR = 0.73, p = 0.08). Therefore, the low profitability of a food production establishment implies an elevated risk of recurring non-compliances. Additionally, the low liquidity of a food production establishment indicates a higher risk of non-compliances during the same year. These financial indicators could be used for mapping FBOs that are at a higher risk of repeatedly violating food safety, and inspections could be targeted at them. This could increase the effectiveness of food control.