Developing Internal Safety Guidelines for Food-service Franchise Businesses: Based on Franchise Operation Systems and Safety at Industrial Sites

Ethics management has become an important consideration in the growth of companies and stable growth of the global food market. In this case, failures in franchise food safety management may cause major accidents or microbial outbreak, which negatively impact the country’s global image and the expansion of the service-based food industry. Therefore, this study proposes the prerequisites for development of internal-food safety management guidelines, optimized for franchise corporations that have been expanding in the changing environment of the South Korean food industry. Franchise systems have discriminant traits, unlike traditional food manufacturing businesses or general independent food service stores: unique operating systems and processing environments, inconsistent manufacturing sources, multiple supply chains, inconsistent manufacturing processes. Therefore, these corporations’ internal food safety management guidelines should reflect such unique characteristics. Accordingly, the following should be considered for systematic internal food safety guidelines in franchise corporations: First, food safety management certificates should not concentrate on individual franchisee stores, but should be applied to entire franchisor operating systems (corresponding to franchise headquarters), enabling consistent quality and sustainable management of restaurant franchises. Second, comparative analysis revealing differences between traditional food manufacturing and restaurant franchise environments are required, based on which risk management measures should be developed for franchise-specific work environments. Third, due to its unique managerial characteristics, various entities are related to franchise operations’ businesses; hence, cooperation among entities is paramount and directions for multilateral cooperation should be considered. Fourth, for successful multilateral cooperation, the social system such as government regulation or corporate structure should clearly define the scope of responsibility of the parties involved in the franchise operation.