Consumer Perceptions of the Safety of Ready-to-Eat Foods in Retail Food Store Settings

Abstract

To better understand how consumers perceive food safety risks in retail food store settings, a survey was administered to 1,041 nationally representative participants who evaluated possible food safety risks depicted in selected photographs and self-reported their perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors. Participants were shown 12 photographs taken at retail stores portraying either commonly perceived or actual food safety contributing factors, such as cross-contamination, product and equipment temperatures, worker hygiene, and/or store sanitation practices. Participants were then asked to specifically identify what they saw, comment as to whether what they saw was safe or unsafe, and articulate what actions they would take in response to these situations. In addition to the survey, focus groups were employed to supplement survey findings with qualitative data. Survey respondents identified risk factors for six of nine actual contributing factor photographs >50% of the time: poor produce storage sanitation (86%, n = 899), cross-contamination during meat slicing (72%, n = 750), bare-hand contact of ready-to-eat food in the deli area (67%, n = 698), separation of raw and ready-to-eat food in the seafood case (63%, n = 660), cross-contamination from serving utensils in the deli case (62%, n = 644), and incorrect product storage temperature (51%, n = 528). On a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 was very unsafe and 5 was very safe, a significant difference was found between average risk perception scores for photographs of actual contributing factors (score of ca. 2.5) and scores for photographs of perceived contributing factors (score of ca. 2.0). Themes from the focus groups supported the results of the survey and provided additional insight into consumer food safety risk perceptions. The results of this study inform communication interventions for consumers and retail food safety professionals aimed at improving hazard identification.

Does the Consumer Sociodemographic Profile Influence the Perception of Aspects Related and Not Related to Food Safety? A Study in Traditional Spanish Street Markets

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Consumer attitudes and perceptions towards chilled ready-to-eat foods: a multi-national study

“…Understanding consumers' behavior and their home practices, as well as their handling of high-risk foods is essential for reducing the number of foodborne illnesses. Several studies have reported consumers' behaviors towards RTE foods (Cates et al 2006;Evans and Redmond 2016;Van Loo et al 2010;Levine et al 2017), and evaluated how consumers perceive food safety risks in retail food store settings, using selected photographs and self-reported perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors, where consumers with a food science background had more knowledge about factors contributing to food safety risks than the average focus group participant. Jevšnik et al (2008) reported that Slovenian consumers were not familiar with their role in the food safety chain or with the importance of maintaining a cold chain, and consequently allowing numerous opportunities for microbiological contamination of food (Jevšnik et al 2008).…”