Impacts of the Pandemic, Animal Source Food Retailers’ and Consumers’ Knowledge and Attitudes toward COVID-19, and Their Food Safety Practices in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic affected the food supply chain, retailers, and consumers owing to infection awareness. This study evaluated the impacts COVID-19 on ASF retailers’ businesses and consumers’ livelihoods, as well as their knowledge toward the disease, attitudes, and food safety practices to prevent infections. The study includes a cross-sectional component that was conducted in urban/peri-urban (U/PU) and rural areas in Chiang Mai province. In another part of the study, a structured questionnaire was developed for animal source food (ASF) retailers and consumers, with three primary parts for data analysis: general information, COVID-19 impacts, and knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) assessment. Data corresponding to three periods of interest (before the COVID-19 outbreak, during partial lockdown, and present) were gathered and analyzed. In this study, 155 retailers and 150 consumers participated, of which the majority of the respondents were female (70.3% and 82.7%, respectively) with average ages of 47.4 and 44.9 years, respectively. The most noticeable effect of COVID-19 was a decline in income for retailers and consumers. The KAP scores of consumers in both areas were not significantly different, whereas the retailer attitudes toward COVID-19 prevention and food safety practices scored more highly in rural areas than in U/PU. During the partial lockdown, food safety practices significantly improved relative to the time preceding the outbreak, and these practices have remained constant to the present day. The results revealed that gender, age group, business type, and type of ASF retailers were associated with the KAP of the retailers, whereas gender, age group, education, number of family members, and occupation were associated with the KAP of the consumers. Our findings provide in-depth information about the effects of COVID-19 on ASF retailers and consumers, as well as their KAP regarding the outbreak and food safety, which may serve as support in developing policies for improved health and food safety.

The relationship among knowledge, attitude, and behavior of workers on food safety in Taiwan’s Company A

“…In addition, it is worth mentioning that the global impact of the COVID-19 epidemic since 2020 has affected the food industry, especially the animal source food (ASF) retailers' business and consumer livelihoods, and has also changed their understanding of the disease, attitudes and food safety practices to prevent infection. Jainonthee et al report in-depth information on the impact of COVID-19 on ASF retailers and consumers, as well as their Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAPs) about the outbreak and food safety, which may help develop strategies to improve health and food security policy (Jainonthee et al 2022). Therefore, the results of this study will be more conducive to planning and applying food safety education in the food industry during the post-COVID-19 epidemic in the future.…”