Special Issue "Risk Perception, Communication and Behavior on Food Safety Issues"

A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Food Quality and Safety".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2024 | Viewed by 1874

Special Issue Editor

School of Applied Sciences, State University of Campinas - UNICAMP, Limeira 13484-350, SP, Brazil
Interests: risk perceptions; food safety practices; food services management; consumer's behavior; consumer's choice; risk assessment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Food safety risk, defined as the presence of physical, chemical or biological contaminants that are unexpected or undetected on the product label, is a key issue for global food chains. Food safety is a vital issue for public health and a daily concern for all people. Increasing public concern about the risks associated with food and ever more complex information about appropriate nutrition demonstrate the importance of effectively communicate to consumers about risk. Risk perception is the judgment of the individual when asked to characterize and evaluate an action, practice, or technology that is considered hazardous. Based on this, risk must be communicated appropriately because risk perception can influence behavior.This Special Issue will explore risk perception, communication and behavior on Food Safety Issues. Original articles, review articles covering the full spectrum of food risk analysis are welcomed for this Special Issue. Contributions addressing microbiological and chemical risk assessment, communication and behavior are especially welcome.

Prof. Dr. Diogo Thimoteo Da Cunha
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Foods is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • food safety
  • food safety culture
  • risk perception
  • cognitive biases
  • knowledge, attitudes and practices
  • food safety behavior
  • risk communication
  • risk management
  • food safety management systems
  • consumer studies

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

Article
Examining Safe Food-Handling Knowledge, Behaviour, and Related Psychological Constructs among Individuals at Higher Risk of Food Poisoning and the General Population
Foods 2023, 12(17), 3297; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods12173297 - 02 Sep 2023
Viewed by 412
Abstract
Safe food-handling knowledge and behaviour are low across the general population. This raises concerns about whether individuals at higher risk of food poisoning have sufficient safe food-handling knowledge and engage in safe food-handling practices. The aim of this study was to explore safe [...] Read more.
Safe food-handling knowledge and behaviour are low across the general population. This raises concerns about whether individuals at higher risk of food poisoning have sufficient safe food-handling knowledge and engage in safe food-handling practices. The aim of this study was to explore safe food-handling knowledge, behaviour, and related psychological constructs among individuals at higher risk of food poisoning and compare the results to the general population. Participants (N = 169) completed measures of safe food-handling knowledge, intention, habit strength, perceived risk, self-efficacy, subjective norms, and behaviour. A series of multivariate analyses of variance were conducted to determine differences in these measures between participants at higher risk of food poisoning and the general population. No significant differences in knowledge, intention, habit strength, self-efficacy, subjective norms, and behaviour were found between individuals at higher risk of food poisoning and the general population. However, individuals at higher risk of food poisoning appeared to have stronger risk perceptions across safe food-handling behaviours compared with the general population. This study demonstrated that individuals at higher risk of food poisoning do not have higher safe food-handling knowledge than the general population, and despite having higher risk perceptions around some safe food-handling behaviours, they do not differ in engagement in safe food-handling behaviours or the majority of related psychological constructs. Implications of these findings relate to the need to target other psychological constructs, not just risk perceptions, in order to see safer food-handling behaviours in high-risk populations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Risk Perception, Communication and Behavior on Food Safety Issues)
Article
Evaluating Factors Explaining U.S. Consumers’ Behavioral Intentions toward Irradiated Ground Beef
Foods 2023, 12(17), 3146; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods12173146 - 22 Aug 2023
Viewed by 438
Abstract
Although food irradiation is deemed safe and endorsed by health-related organizations worldwide, consumers are reluctant to accept the technology. Yet, consumer acceptance is critical as food irradiation has significant potential for increasing the safety and availability of food globally. To communicate about food [...] Read more.
Although food irradiation is deemed safe and endorsed by health-related organizations worldwide, consumers are reluctant to accept the technology. Yet, consumer acceptance is critical as food irradiation has significant potential for increasing the safety and availability of food globally. To communicate about food irradiation, science communicators should understand the psychology behind consumers’ decision making related to irradiated foods. Using empirical research, we developed a theoretical model and used structural equation modeling to determine how nine variables affect consumers’ behavioral intentions toward irradiated ground beef. We purchased a national quota sample from Qualtrics and surveyed N = 1102 U.S. consumers. The model explained 60.3% of the variance in consumers’ attitudes toward food irradiation and 55.4% of their behavioral intentions toward irradiated ground beef. Attitude had the largest positive, total effect on consumers’ behavioral intentions, which was followed by subjective social norm and perceived benefit. Perceived risk had the largest negative, total effect on behavioral intentions. Attitude mediated the effect of subjective social norm, perceived benefit, perceived risk, objective knowledge, and food technology neophobia. Environmental concern and health consciousness did not significantly affect behavioral intention. Science communicators should develop messaging strategies that seek to improve consumer acceptance with these factors in mind. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Risk Perception, Communication and Behavior on Food Safety Issues)
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Article
Development of an Educational Gamification Strategy to Enhance the Food Safety Practices of Family Farmers in Public Food Markets of Northeast Brazil: A Case Study
Foods 2023, 12(10), 1972; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods12101972 - 12 May 2023
Viewed by 739
Abstract
This study aimed to develop an educational gamification strategy to enhance the food safety practices of family farmers in public food markets in a city in Northeastern Brazil (João Pessoa, PB, Brazil). A good manufacturing practices (GMP) checklist was used to verify hygienic-sanitary [...] Read more.
This study aimed to develop an educational gamification strategy to enhance the food safety practices of family farmers in public food markets in a city in Northeastern Brazil (João Pessoa, PB, Brazil). A good manufacturing practices (GMP) checklist was used to verify hygienic-sanitary conditions in the food markets. Educational game tools addressing foodborne diseases and GMP with information about the prevention of foodborne diseases, good food handling practices, and safe food storage were developed. Pre- and post-training assessments were done to evaluate food handlers’ knowledge and food safety practices. Microbiological parameters of food samples were analyzed before and two months after the training. Results indicated unsatisfactory hygiene conditions in the examined food markets. There was a very strong positive correlation between “implementation of GMP” and “production and process controls” (R = 0.95; p ≤ 0.05) and between “production and process controls” and “hygiene habits of handlers” (R = 0.92; p ≤0.05). There was no homogeneity between answers before and after the training for the knowledge of family farmers regarding “prevention of foodborne diseases” and “safe food handling”. There were improvements in the measured microbiological parameters of foods sold by family farmers after the application of the developed educational gamification training. These results showed the developed educational game-based strategy as being effective in raising awareness of hygienic sanitary practices, helping to promote food safety, and reducing risks for the consumers of street foods at family farmers’ markets. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Risk Perception, Communication and Behavior on Food Safety Issues)
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