Development and pilot testing of a questionnaire to assess sensory quality control (SQC) knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) of food company employees

Sound sensory evaluation knowledge and attitude are central to the successful development and implementation of a sensory quality programme. This study focused on the development and pilot testing of a questionnaire to assess the sensory quality control (SQC) knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) of food company employees. The initial questionnaire consisted of 43 questions divided into four sections: respondent and company characteristics, knowledge, attitudes and practices. Six subject matter experts and eight food company employees reviewed the questions for content validity and clarity. The questionnaire was modified and a pilot test (n = 56) was carried out to determine the psychometric properties of the questionnaire. The final revised questionnaire with 37 questions had acceptable content validity and clarity. The knowledge questions showed acceptable difficulty and discrimination indices, item-total correlation ranged from 0.3 to 0.9 for both the attitudes and practices sections. Exploratory factor analysis led to the retention of three factors for attitudes and one factor for the practices sections, respectively. Cronbach's alpha ranged from 0.6 to 0.9. The questionnaire is a tool that can be used to rapidly identify gaps in SQC knowledge and attitudes of food employees, as well as to identify areas of improvement of a company's SQC system.