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Conversations around diversity, race and science fiction and fantasy films/television have sparked in response to recent casting decisions made in the upcoming live-action The Little Mermaid, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and Star Wars' Obi-Wan Kenobi (Deggans, 2022; Romano, 2022). Backlash against casting of actors of Color in these genres highlights racial projects where a cultural memory of whiteness comes up against multicultural change. The authors of this paper feel that there is great potential in using current-day racial issues around fantasy films/television to explore these racial projects with students in social studies classes (Omi and Winant, 2014).

Using a qualitative textual analysis (Peräkylä, 2005), the authors examined online news media outlets addressing the casting of actors of Color in the aforementioned media pieces. After reviewing over twenty articles, the authors determined two major themes that would serve as the findings.

In this paper, themes of nostalgia for an imagined ‘way things were’ and future-based fears of how things will become emerged from the analysis, revealing a need for engaging students in the history of sci-fi and fantasy media, and the existing, diverse histories of storytelling featuring multiple races.

The authors argue that examining racial projects found in contemporary sci-fi and fantasy casting are chances for students to understand complex racial histories and how they blend into current-day cultural landscapes, and are opportunities to practice analysis of real-life racial histories and richly-imagined fantasy worlds, noticing how and why the two often collide when it comes to race.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of the functioning of HACCP principles in certified and non-certified food businesses.

The data were collected by audits made in 40 food businesses of various food industry sectors. All food businesses were located in Poland where the HACCP system is obligatory. Half of the evaluated businesses implemented one or more private voluntary certified standards. The audit form contained 134 detailed questions covering 12 steps and seven principles of HACCP implementation and functioning. The obtained results were analyzed using a t-test, Spearman’s test, and cluster analysis.

The overall assessment of the HACCP principles in certified food businesses was higher than in non-certified ones. However, the functioning of HACCP principles in practice was assessed much lower than the system implementation in all business groups, despite certification and the type of food industry. In each of the food industry sectors both implementation and functioning of HACCP principles were evaluated higher in certified than in non-certified food businesses. Further research is needed to explain why, despite certification, the functioning of the mandatory HACCP principles is often incomplete and what factors affect the correct operation, as well as if these are sufficient to ensure food safety.

The main limitation of this research is a small sample of only 40 food businesses of various food industry sectors located in Poland. Due to the small sample, the research should be considered as the preliminary or scoping study. Although the method applied in the study allowed rapid evaluation of implementation and functioning of HACCP principles in food businesses, more work and analyses should be done for its reliability and validity.

The obtained results gave a lot of practical information, e.g.: first, the overall assessment of the HACCP principles in the certified food businesses is higher than that in the non-certified ones; second, the functioning of the HACCP principles in practice is weaker than the system implementation despite certification; third, in some cases the passing certification schemes do not result in a company having excellent food safety practices; and fourth, the applied method allows rapid evaluation of implementation and functioning of HACCP principles. However, more work and analyses should be done for its reliability and validity.

It is believed that certification strengthens HACCP functioning in food businesses. However, the study has shown that functioning of HACCP principles in practice was assessed much lower than the system implementation in all business groups, despite certification and the type of food industry. This indicate that even in certified food businesses HACCP functioning is often incomplete, which may have an impact on food safety.

The paper presents additional and detailed data on the functioning of HACCP principles in certified and non-certified food business. Despite certification and the type of food industry sector, the functioning of HACCP principles in practice was assessed much lower than the system implementation in all business groups. The method applied in this study allowed rapid evaluation of implementation and functioning of HACCP principles in food businesses. However, more work and analyses should be done for its reliability and validity.