Food Safety, Labor Costs, and the Effects on Quick Service Restaurant Revenues

With the increasing need to maintain safe food practices in restaurants, this article explores the relationships between unit food safety performance, labor costs, and revenues in quick service restaurants. Namely, the goals of this study were to explore associations between food safety performance and restaurant revenues, labor costs and restaurant revenues as well as the relationship between labor costs and food safety performance. Using a theoretical foundation of organizational learning as support for lowering labor costs, research questions were answered using ANCOVAs, independent t-tests and Pearson correlations. Incorporating data from 1,190 quick service restaurant units, the study found relationships among the variables in that lower labor costs typically result in greater financial and food safety performance. Moreover, greater food safety performance also tended to result in greater financial performance. Theoretical and practical implications for the restaurant industry are discussed.