Public Health Inspector Bias and Judgment during Inspections of Food Service Premises

摘要

Public health inspectors make numerous judgments and decisions during their inspections of food premises. Many of these judgments and decisions are subjective and can be influenced by bias. Nine public health inspectors were interviewed to explore theexistence and potential impact of bias in their judgment and decision-making process during inspections of food premises. Several biases that have been identified in prior research and demonstrated to have an impact on professional judgment outside thearena of health inspection were used as a baseline. The findings revealed that certain types of biases were influencing the decision-making processes of public health inspectors and that bias could indeed affect the results of inspections. Recommendations to reduce the impact of bias include training, calibration and area rotation.