With the globalization of food and beverage industry, international organizations and food importing countries from every part of the world are much concerned about the food safety and have imposed very stringent regulations aiming a higher level of food safety. With regard to the tea processing sector in Sri Lanka, the latest food safety control added into this line is Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP). Over the last few years, the tea processing firms in Sri Lanka are also facing the “challenge” or “threat” of implementing a system of HACCP in its plants.The study was aimed to assess the factors affecting for adoption of HACCP by the tea manufacturers and to identify the barriers that inhibit the adoption of international food safety regulations. A questionnaire based survey was carried out to collect the data from random sample of 45 tea factories in Kandy district, Sri Lanka. Descriptive statistical analyze method was used to determine the status of adoption of HACCP while Multiple Linear Regression was used to find out the relationship between the level of adoption and other explanatory variables. The result revealed that the implementation of HACCP was significantly determined by the production capacity of the factory, having experience before on other quality management systems and ownership type -2 (company ownership). The most important constraints perceived by tea manufacturers are lack of finance and pre-requisite to train employees.
Factors, Food Safety Regulations, Tea Manufacturers, Constraints
