Understanding Preferences for Interventions To Reduce Microbiological Contamination in Dutch Vegetable Production

Abstract

Understanding growers' preferences regarding interventions to improve the microbiological safety of their produce could help to design more effective strategies for the adoption of such food safety measures by growers. The objective of this survey study was to obtain insights for the design of interventions that could stimulate growers to increase the frequency of irrigation water sampling and water testing to reduce possible microbiological contamination of their fresh produce. The results showed that price intervention, referring to making the intervention less costly by reducing the price via discounts, is the most effective strategy to change growers' intentions to increase their frequency of irrigation water testing. Moreover, a sense of urgency affects their intentions to increase the frequency of irrigation water testing. The findings of this survey support the hypothesis that, to date, safety is not perceived as a quality control issue under normal circumstances, but safety becomes an overriding attribute in a food crisis.

Prioritising water disinfection technologies to improve food safety of leafy vegetables

“…The weights for the nine criteria did not greatly differ, which explain why the overall ranking of the technologies was not influenced by the weights of the criteria. However, a study by Van Asseldonk et al (2018) showed that a grower's willingness to implement a technology is steered by price intervention (discounts and economic incentives). When cost is taken as the only criterion for selection, UV, sand filtration þ UV, US þ UV and chlorine dioxide were the top four disinfection technologies.…”

Pricing and Safety Investment Decisions in Food Supply Chains with Government Subsidy

“…Lee et al analyzed the understanding of Chinese customers' perceptions of nonthermal processing technologies and ways to mitigate negative perceptions [6]. Asseldonk et al found that understanding growers' preferences regarding interventions to improve the microbiological safety of their production could help to design more effective strategies for the adoption of such food safety measures by growers [7]. Regulations and specifications on processing technology in the food industry could improve product quality and customer trust [8] and could affect the expected price in the spot markets [9].…”

Adoção de inovações tecnológicas no cultivo de hortaliças em sistema de plantio direto: uma revisão integrativa da literatura

“…Geralmente consumidos crus, não recebem tratamentos específicos para minimizar possíveis riscos à saúde. Ocorre que boas práticas de manipulação dos alimentos agrícolas são fundamentais para gerenciar a segurança alimentar, como descrevem os estudos de van Asseldonk et al (2018) e Rajkumar (2010), entre outros. Por essa razão, leis são necessárias para garantir a qualidade dos produtos e estabelecer padrões de produção agrícola (Adalja & Lichtenberg, 2018).…”