Performance of food safety management systems of Chinese food business operators in Tianjin

China is one of the largest food suppliers in the world, but still continues to face challenges in ensuring food safety. This study aims to gain insights into the performance of food safety management systems (FSMSs) of Chinese food business operators (FBOs) given their typical context characteristics. This study assessed 121 Chinese FBOs in one of the four municipalities, varying in company size and food sector, using a FSMS-Diagnostic Instrument (FSMS-DI) to evaluate their levels of core control and assurance activities, context riskiness, and food system outputs. The results indicated that most participating FBOs have implemented FSMSs adequate to their context riskiness. Chinese FBOs mostly have advanced control activities, rather than assurance activities (i.e. verification and validation), which could be attributed to the current food law's unbalanced emphasis on control activities over assurance activities. We found that most FBOs obtained an average score for organisational characteristics including technical staff, variability of the workforce, operator competencies, and employee involvement; this suggests room for improvement in organisational-related context characteristics affecting FSMSs. • This study evaluated 121 Chinese FBOs considering context characteristics. • Factors including context riskiness and food system outputs were evaluated. • Most participating FBOs have implemented FSMS adequate to their context riskiness. • Most Chinese FBOs have advanced control activities, over assurance activities. • FBOs mainly face moderate riskiness on organisational characteristics.