Knowledge and Consumer Behavior Related to Safe Practices of Food Handling

Abstract

<p class="1"><span lang="EN-US">The purpose of this research was to analyze the perceptions and practices of participants involved in safe food handling. The sample was composed by 204 participants. To assess behavior, knowledge and psychosocial factors, the instrument used was divided in six topics: sociodemographic characteristics; behavioral measures regarding safe food production; measures about knowledge and practices in pest control and food purchase; Food Safety scale with two factors and Cronbach's alpha of 0.75; Credence declaration scale with three factors and Cronbach's alpha of 0.78, both scales with seven points, Likert type; Self-efficacy scale with one factor and Cronbach's alpha of 0.86, also Likert type with five points. A linear model of multiple variance analysis was used to evaluate if the variables gender, age, income, education and professional experience were used to determine the behavioral, knowledge and psychosocial measures. When the detected differences were significant, a post-hoc analysis was used with the Tukey adjustment. The knowledge about safe food production and food poisoning showed that 95.1% of participants consider <em>very important</em> hygiene precautions in food preparation in their homes; 30.4% of participants said that they or someone in their family have developed symptoms related to food poisoning in the last 12 months. The data obtained for self-efficacy showed significant differences for the variables gender, age and education. Women and college graduates replied that they <em>Are Sure they Can Do That </em>when asked about the execution of tasks that promote food safety. </span><span lang="EN-US">These results substantiate the need for educational initiatives tailored to develop the food safety knowledge and food-handling practices in Brasil.</span><strong></strong></p>

Do Polish Consumers Take Proper Care of Hygiene while Shopping and Preparing Meals at Home in the Context of Wasting Food?

“…As in earlier studies [8,[70][71][72][73][74], it was found that it was women (clusters D, C, and B) who demonstrated better food safety knowledge and practices than men (clusters E and A). On the basis of the characteristics of the identified clusters, it can be seen that this is one of the key factors determining the correctness of the answers given.…”

Good Practices in Home Kitchens: Construction and Validation of an Instrument for Household Food-Borne Disease Assessment and Prevention

“…In item 4.2, the experts recommended adding the question “Food served immediately after preparation or, if prepared in advance, reheated before being served”. It is important to emphasize that Costa et al [25] showed that in Brazil lunch leftovers usually are left on the kitchen counter until dinner time, increasing the risk of FBD. Therefore, the experts judged enough the sentence proposed without the timeline information.…”

Instrument to Identify Food Neophobia in Brazilian Children by Their Caregivers

“…The final instrument involved the following variables (I) food neophobia in different environments—home, friends’ house, school, social events- and situations—birthday parties, friends meetings and (II) food neophobia with an emphasis on fruits and vegetables. We chose to use a five-point scale as options to answer each item because studies have shown that it is an accurate scale to measure what it wants to measure with several possibilities that are not tiring for the participant [ 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 ]. The adaptation of items to the Brazilian context was necessary for the local reality.…”