Risk communication and social media during food safety crises: a study of stakeholders’ opinions in Ireland

Social media is a particular communication platform which has witnessed an exponential growth in use and influence in recent years, democratising the communication process, and offering risk communicators a way of putting into practice those principles which are advocated to be at the core of risk management and communication. However, little is known about stakeholders’ willingness to embrace this new form of communication in a food crisis. The current study presented an exploratory investigation of the opinions of Irish stakeholders on the position of risk communication in a crisis, with a particular focus on understanding what application social media may have. In-depth one-to-one interviews were carried out with key stakeholders holding frontline positions in managing and communicating about risk in the food sector in Ireland. The stakeholders identified risk communication as a central activity in a food safety crisis, driven by an obligation to protect both consumer health and the reputation of the Irish food sector. Stakeholders relied primarily on risk communication to disseminate information in a crisis so to educate and inform the public on a risk and to prevent confusion and alarmism; most did not explicitly value two-way risk communication in a crisis. The ability to effectively manage future crises may depend on stakeholders’ willingness to adapt to the changing communication landscape, namely – their willingness to adopt social media and use it effectively. The findings indicate that the stakeholders interviewed are appreciative of the need to engage with social media in times of a food safety crisis. However, most valued social media as a one-way channel to help spread a message and there was little reference to the interactive nature of this medium. Implications for integrating social media into crisis risk communication strategies are discussed.     

Reducing microbiological risk in the kitchen: piloting consensus conference methodology as a communication strategy

Foodborne diseases are a major public health problem. Improper storage and food preparation at home can favour microbial contamination of food. Consumers play a crucial role in controlling this risk. To reduce exposure to risk, it is essential to provide information and guidance on contamination management in the home. The aim of this study was to pilot a method of participatory communication addressed to young consumers and designed to reduce the microbiological risks associated with the consumption of meat products. The methodology was based on application of the ‘consensus conference’ model on food safety issues. The consensus conference served not only as a participatory strategy to share knowledge but also as a method for sharing in the development of risk communication content (guidelines) to be disseminated to the reference target. Young people’s perceptions, habits and behaviour in the kitchen were explored in the preparatory stage of the consensus conference by means of a survey and a focus group. Three consensus conferences were held in Italy attended by 60 university students (19 and 22 years old). Application of the consensus conference model as a communication process proved to be an effective opportunity to engage young consumers and experts on the topic of food safety. This discursive participation approach was broadly welcomed by the participants. Specifically, direct interaction with the experts was considered to be an important part of the communication process. The findings of the project were used to select concise communication content based on the perceptions, behaviours and fact-finding needs of the selected target. Publication of this content in the form of guidelines on microbiological risk management at home has enabled the results of the consensus conferences to be extended and the targeted communication material on risk reduction in daily food handling practices to be disseminated.     

Which food safety information sources do Italian consumers prefer? Suggestions for the development of effective food risk communication

This study investigated which information sources Italian consumers use most frequently when they have a question about food safety in order to obtain useful insights to inform food risk communication. In 2011, a national survey was conducted targeting Italian people responsible for purchasing and preparing food for their households. Respondents’ choices of information sources on food safety were correlated with their socio-demographic and behavioural characteristics, their levels of objective knowledge, their levels of trust towards some authorities and their levels of self-perception regarding risk exposure. Our data analysis identified those information channels that are most likely to reach Italians actively seeking information. Mass media (radio/television/newspapers) were the most frequently used information source, followed by the Internet. Age, educational qualification, employment status, geographical area, family status and objective knowledge were the variables that influenced the choice for information sources used by the Italian population. The frequency of buying food products, the frequency of eating put and the frequency of cooking also showed a dependency relation. The profiles of those who actively seek information were also outlined. Among these, the Mass media users’ and the Internet users’ profiles were further analysed. Results show that Italian consumers do actively seek information about food safety, revealing that food safety continues to be a concern for the Italian consumers. Their interest in this topic represents an opportunity for public health authorities to address an audience of receptive consumers. Such information will be valuable in the design of targeted communication campaigns to increase consumers’ knowledge and awareness of food safety issues and will help authorities to choose the most effective channels through which to deliver key messages.     

Even beyond humanity – a comment on ‘Change and commitment: beyond risk and responsibility’ by Silvio Funtowicz and Roger Strand

Due to past major food scares, food-safety perceptions have become a widely investigated topic. The aim of the present study was to examine food-safety perceptions separately for every step of the total meat supply chain, as such a detailed approach yields more promising strategies to ensure food safety in the future. Using a large-scale survey, we examined people’s risk perceptions of 18 steps describing the total meat supply chain. The results revealed a clear distinction between risk perception at the production stage and risk perception at home in the total meat supply chain, in that people perceived significantly less risk at home. However, people’s risk perceptions of the single stages in the total meat supply chain were overall slightly above average. Additionally, there were individual differences, as risk perception at the production stage was highly correlated with risk perception at home, meaning that some people perceived more risk than others overall. Using a multiple regression analysis, we found food-safety perceptions to be barely significant next to other important variables affecting people’s meat-consumption decisions. For those analyses, we asked participants to assess several constructs previously found to be associated with meat consumption. The goal was to determine how food-safety perceptions influence people’s meat consumption next to other important constructs in situations in which no major food scandal is present. The present paper concludes by discussing possible marketing and policy strategies to overcome people’s inaccurate safety perceptions of the stages of the total food chain.     

《食品安全与卫生》课程教学改革的探索与研究

随着人们生活水平的提高,食品安全与卫生越来越受社会的广泛关注。食品安全与卫生是当前世界范围内普遍存在的问题。彻底解决任重道远。从食品安全与卫生课程内容体系的构建、授课方式和方法及考核形式等方面进行探索与阐述,总结近了几年教学改革做法,为今后教学提供更好的对策。     

食品安全的刑法保护

近年来,食品安全事故频发,食品安全受到广泛关注。2009年6月1日,《中华人民共和国食品安全法》正式实施,“食品卫生”的概念被“食品安全”所替代,这充分彰显了国家对食品安全保护的力度和决心。食品安全事故一旦发生,将带来严重的社会危害性,仅用《食品安全法》来对食品安全进行保护是远远不够的。作为其他法律保障法的刑法也应适时的起到对食品安全的保护作用,完善对危害食品安全犯罪的刑法规制,以便更好地保护食品安全,维护公众的生命健康权利。     

The influence of chronic and temporary accessibility on trust and policy support

Abstract

Food is very closely related to our everyday life and consumers are intolerable to food risk. The impact of media report on food risk perception has been addressed but more elaborated approach on consumers’ cognitive process of food risk perception via media is needed. Theoretically guided by accessibility theory, we examined the relationship between consumers’ perception of food risk (i.e. food schema), media use, media frame, trust, and policy support. Furthermore, anger was employed as a mediating variable influencing on trust and policy support. Results found that the level of media use had a significant positive effect on trust and policy support. Among the media frames, the government responsibility frame and corporate responsibility frame were shown to be negative predictors for trust and policy support. As for the food schema, checking schema was the most influential negative factor on trust and policy support. Anger was found to exert a negative effect on trust and policy support but this effect decreased if the level of trust was high. In terms of the relationship between media frames and the food schema on anger, most food schema reduced the strong positive effects of the media frame on anger. This means peoples’ anger induced by media frames can be diminished by individuals’ specific food schema. Both theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

货币政策为何及如何关注食品价格

食品价格是通货膨胀压力的灵敏反映指标,且由于食品部门供应价格弹性、存货缓冲能力、需求价格弹性和生产效率相对较低,产品同质化程度相对较高,食品价格的弹性明显高于非食品价格,加之在通货膨胀和经济周期过程中,食品部门具有需求顺周期和供给逆周期的特征,食品价格波动幅度往往远高于非食品价格,存在一定程度的超调。因此,文章建议货币政策应充分关注食品价格,同时适当提高对食品价格波幅的容忍程度。     

Italian consumers’ attitudes towards food risks: self-protective and non-self-protective profiles for effective risk communication

The study aims to assess Italian consumers’ attitudes towards food risks and seeks to outline their socio-demographic and behavioural characteristics on the basis of their attitudes (self-protective and non-self-protective) towards food risks. Using the Computer-assisted telephone interviewing survey method, a sample of 1000 Italian consumers was interviewed on risk perception issues and general eating habits. Factor analyses on the consumers’ propensities to read the label when buying a food product for the first time, their propensities to seek food-related information and their perceived levels of exposure to food risks have enabled us to define Italian consumers’ attitudes towards food risks. Distinguishing between consumers with more self-protective attitudes and those with less self-protective attitudes and identifying their distinctive socio-demographic and behavioural characteristics (e.g. gender, age, the frequency with which respondents do grocery shopping and the channels used for further inquiry) are crucial for communication campaigns aimed at reducing consumers’ exposure to food risks.     

Evaluation of psychosocial and organizational factors in offshore safety: a comparative study

This study compares UK and Norwegian offshore workers' evaluations of social and organizational factors that can have an impact upon safety on offshore installations. A total of 1138 Norwegian (87% response rate) and 622 UK workers (40% response rate) responded to a self-completion questionnaire, which was distributed to 18 installations in February/March 1994. The questionnaire contained six scales that were suitable and relevant for the purposes of comparison. These scales measured ‘risk perception’, ‘satisfaction with safety measures’, ‘perceptions of the job situation’, ‘attitudes to safety’, ‘perceptions of others' commitment to safety’ and ‘perceptions of social support’. The data show clear differences in how UK and Norwegian workers evaluate various social and organizational factors that can have an impact upon safety, however, eta² analysis indicated that for most of the scales ‘installation’ explained a greater percentage of the variance than sector. The exceptions to this were scales measuring ‘safety attitudes’ where both sector and installation contributed equally to the effects. Although the results from the ‘safety attitudes’ scales should be interpreted with caution (due to low internal reliability), it is possible that they are tapping into more deeply held beliefs about the nature of safety, e.g. ‘fatalism’ and the ‘causes of accidents’. In contrast, the other scales are measuring factors directly related to the working environment such as perceptions of risk and satisfaction with safety measures on the installation. These may reflect the prevailing ‘safety climate’ or ‘atmosphere’ on the installations surveyed, whereas constructs such as ‘fatalism’, etc. may be reflections of underlying ‘cultural’ values. Recognizing the existence of different ‘safety cultures’ and understanding the processes which lie behind them could have implications for safety management in an industry which is highly international in nature and in which workers' are often required to work in foreign countries for varying periods of time.     

Do institutions prevent contagion in financial markets? Evidence from the European debt crisis

ABSTRACT

The recent European Sovereign Debt Crisis brought in attention a number of structural problems in the European Union. Part of the effort to correct these problems in the countries that were mostly affected by the crisis were a number of policy responses from the European Union, the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Local Governments. In this study, we attempt to assess the success of these responses to constrain the contagion of the crisis from the banking sector to the real economy sectors of the Eurozone countries. Our results show that policy announcements from the EU/ECB/IMF affect the transmission of shocks generated in the banking sector to the market. Moreover, policy responses of the national governments also seem to play a role in the contagion of the crisis.