Factors influencing the efficacy of consumer food safety communication

Purpose - The home is the location for a substantial number of cases of food poisoning and improving consumer food safety practices is important. This paper proposes investigating how consumers perceive their own abilities and level of food safety risk, as well as attitudes to different forms of interventions which is a largely unstudied area. Design/methodology/approach - Postal questionnaires were sent to a linked demographic quota of adults in South Wales. Responses were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings - Overall the majority of consumers were positively disposed to food safety education, although variation occurred within social economic groups. The majority of respondents expressed confidence in their own abilities, although were prepared to listen to food safety advice. Respondents strongly believed it was important for television chefs to implement necessary food safety practices and indicated optimistic and social desirability bias. Information on risk could be beneficial, although concerns were expressed if this was too graphic. A number of correlations between attitudes were identified which could be of importance in designing food safety interventions. Originality/value - Findings from this study, which have been supported by qualitative findings from focus groups should be considered in the design of intervention strategies.