One member of the research team was at that time employed in the consultancy scheme described
above and was responsible for providing comprehensive support and training to food businesses in the process of implementing HACCP.
The study recruited an opportunistic sample that
comprised all those premises allocated to the researcher in 2005.
The food businesses had all formally applied for the consultancy
support. Implementation of a Food Safety Management Systemwas
a legal requirement and Food Business Operators in Cyprus were
required to comply or face possible closure of the business. The
consultancy scheme was a government supported with universal
uptake by the businesses. This made the inclusion of a matched
control group in the study impossible. The sample group included
restaurants, fast food enterprises, catering premises, traditional
tavernas, confectionaries, meat products premises and bakeries,
reflecting the range of businesses trading on the Island of Cyprus.
The participants were located in all areas of the Island and none had
more than 21 employees. These characteristics indicate that the
composition of the sample group was representative of the food
businesses in Cyprus. In total fifty volunteer SME's were recruited
to participate in the study. Cochran's equation (confidence level
95% and precision 10%) identified a minimum sample size of 45