Factors Impacting Food Safety Risk Perceptions

We developed and applied a model of consumer risk perceptions of beef food safety to better understand the underlying drivers of consumer demand for food safety. We show how consumer demographics, country‐of‐residence, as well as reliance on, and trust in, alternative food safety information sources affect risk perceptions of consumers in Canada, Japan and the United States. Consumers in all three countries have risk perceptions shaped by their level of reliance on observable and credence attribute information. Risk perceptions of consumers in each country are significantly higher for those less trusting of doctors. Moreover, personal and indirect food safety experiences substantially affect risk perceptions. These results are useful to decision‐makers in developing more efficient supply chain management strategies and public policies aimed at building or sustaining consumer confidence in food safety.     

Food Safety and Private International Law

Abstract

One response to rising consumer concerns pertaining to food safety has been private industry and public sector initiatives to put in place traceability systems. One of the objectives of traceability systems is to enhance the deterrence role played by legal liability. When supply chains cross international boundaries, private international law governs liability. This paper explores the relationship between food safety, traceability, legal liability and private international law with the interface of Canadian and US law as the example. The conclusion is that, even when legal systems have a similar basis and governments cooperate in enforcement, the complexity of private international law will inhibit the role of traceability and liability in raising food safety standards.     

食品中黄曲霉毒素检测技术的研究现状

近年来,随着我国经济的快速发展和人们生活水平的提高,越来越多的消费者开始关注食品的质量和安全。随着食品行业的发展,食品安全问题层出不穷,严重危害人们的身体健康,而黄曲霉毒素是影响食品质量安全的主要毒素之一。研究表明,黄曲霉毒素种类繁多、毒性极强,对人体的致癌性也极为显著,是目前已知最强的致癌物之一。因此,食品中的黄曲霉毒素已经成为危害人类健康的重大问题,对食品中的黄曲霉毒素进行准确、有效的检测,能够降低食物中毒的风险。本文对食物中黄曲霉毒素检测技术的研究现状进行综述,以期对食品公共卫生能够有进一步的了解。     

探究PCR技术在食品微生物检测中的应用

食品安全问题是世界上最难解决的公共卫生问题.随着时代的发展,对食品安全的要求越来越高.研究如何优化技术检验质量,提高食品检验效果已成为必然趋势,特别是在一些特定的环境中,更应该重视食品中的微生物检测,防止微生物污染.目前,沙门氏菌、副溶血性弧菌等致病菌较为常见,做好此类致病菌的检测,可以有效提高食品安全工作效率.要做好...     

风险分析体系在食品安全管理中的应用效果

全球经济一体化发展程度的加深使食品国际贸易得到了迅速发展,传统饮食上的地域限制逐渐被打破,在此发展背景下,影响食品行业的不安全因素也在不断增多.近年来,随着物质生活水平的不断提升,人们对食品安全的关注程度也在不断加深,在确保公平贸易、促进经济平稳高速发展的同时,做到有效规避风险、确保公众健康安全,是对食品安全的基本要求...     

Differences in Consumer Abstraction Levels as a Function of Risk Perception

This study investigates factors affecting consumer purchase choice (cognitive structures) in two foods with different perceived risk levels. Means‐end chain methodology is used to test for differences in the degrees of abstraction and complexity in the purchase decision process for each product. The results reveal significant differences, with more food safety issues coming into play in the case of the product associated with higher perceived risk in the past. This might suggest a non‐temporal effect on consumers’ level of risk perception in food products, with important implications for crisis management. Furthermore, logit models estimated to investigate the health impact of foods show that age and income have played a role in turning this credence attribute into a key element of consumer choice.     

Consumer valuation of safety‐labeled free‐range chicken: results of a field experiment in Hanoi

This article presents results of a field experiment designed to assess willingness to pay for safely produced free‐range chicken in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. Improved safety of chicken production and trading is suggested as an important component of avian influenza control strategy, which aims to address the direct costs of avian influenza as well as the global public health externality. However, consumer demand for safely produced free‐range chicken is unknown. Products that have credible food labeling are not common in traditional markets where the majority of free‐range chicken is purchased. Valuing characteristics of products sold in informal markets is a major challenge that our experiment overcomes. As part of the experiment, we provided several vendors from these markets with safety‐labeled free‐range chicken. Consumer valuation of safety labeling was elicited through having experiment participants, who were representative of potential consumers, select between discount coupons for either safety‐labeled chicken or regular chicken. Results indicate that consumers will pay at least $0.50, or a 10–15% premium, per chicken purchase for safety labeling, which emphasizes safe production, processing, and transport conditions. This premium is smaller than the premium currently paid for traditional chicken varieties that are considered to be tastier. Consumers with more education have higher valuation of safety labeling. Hence, safety labeling for high‐quality free‐range chicken can play a role in controlling livestock disease and improving public health.     

Managing Food Chain Risks: Integrating Technical and Stakeholder Perspectives on Uncertainty

We explore ways for expressing and communicating uncertainties about food risks and the options for including views from different stakeholders, including members of the public, in risk assessment and risk management. Uncertainty is not only a major consideration of technical risk assessments but also needs to be understood within the two‐way interaction with various stakeholders, ranging from specialist risk managers to members of the public. We consider techniques for integration of technical risk assessment methodologies, including measures of the uncertainties, with social science inputs on participation processes, consumer behaviour and effective risk communication. We use case studies representing different types of risk – chemical contamination, and microbial contamination – to focus the discussion. The paper reviews the approach of ongoing interdisciplinary research which is exploring ways of communicating risks and involving members of the public and other stakeholders in defining the interfaces and processes needed.     

试析食品安全问题与食品检测发展方向

随着人们生活水平的不断提高,食品安全问题越来越受到人们的重视,因此,食品质量监管部门也积极致力于食品安全检查管理系统的优化和革新.从现实角度来看,食品安全问题的出现不仅会给社会带来极其严重的负面影响,也会给公众的身心健康带来极大的伤害.本文从食品安全问题与食品检测技术为出发点进行阐述,以期为食品安全与检测发展提供一定的...     

基于食用油的食品安全风险认知研究

食用油作为人们日常生活的必需用品,关系到每个人的身体健康。本文阐述了食品安全风险认知的内涵、风险认知影响因素,并提出针对食品安全风险的对策与建议,以此来保证我国食品安全健康体系的完善,实现食品安全健康发展,从而提高我国消费者的健康水平。     

Asymmetric Information,Externalities and Incentives in Animal Disease Prevention and Control

Incentives influence behaviour while an understanding of farmer behaviour facilitates the control and prevention of infectious livestock disease. This paper lays out several perspectives on how information problems and other externalities affect biosecurity incentives. We use the principal–agent framework to examine livestock disease management in the presence of potential moral hazard and adverse selection. Moral hazard may apply to biosecurity decisions while adverse selection may apply to disease reporting. The example of compensation policies illustrates the importance of creating appropriate incentives: compensation must be sufficient to ensure early reporting but not so large as to discourage appropriate levels of biosecurity effort. Other cases of externalities are more diffuse than those modelled using principal–agent analysis, placing emphasis on third‐party effects and coordination problems. Three examples are provided. One concerns free‐riding when facing an endemic disease pool that can be managed by limiting sources and flows. Another regards coordination failure when securing against an exotic disease where farmer efforts complement and communicating actions are important. The last arises from absence of a risk market where an adverse infrastructural support externality could be managed by disease outbreak insurance.     

Food Scares and Trust: A European Study

The complex interactions between the determinants of food purchase under risk are explored using the SPARTA model, based on the theory of planned behaviour, and estimated through a combination of multivariate statistical techniques. The application investigates chicken consumption choices in two scenarios: (a) a ‘standard’ purchasing situation; and (b) following a hypothetical Salmonella scare. The data are from a nationally representative survey of 2,725 respondents from five European countries: France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Results show that the effects and interactions of behavioural determinants vary significantly within Europe. Only in the case of a food scare do risk perceptions and trust come into play. The policy priority should be on building and maintaining trust in food and health authorities and research institutions, while food chain actors could mitigate the consequences of a food scare through public trust. No relationship is found between socio‐demographic variables and consumer trust in food safety information.     

食品抽样工作的风险与防控措施研究

食品抽样工作作为保证食品安全的重要环节,与食品质量和人们的生命健康安全有着直接的联系.受外在因素的影响,目前在食品抽样过程中仍存在着许多风险,严重影响了抽样工作的落实效果.基于此,本文围绕食品抽样检验工作现状,对常见的风险问题进行分析,并提出相应的防控措施,以期能有效降低抽样风险点,保证食品的安全.     

Consumer Perception of Food Safety Related Risk

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine what factors cause consumer risk perception during periods of food safety concern. A survey of 195 respondents was carried out to explore the nature of consumer perception of food safety related risk using multi-dimensional analysis and how this perception was affected. Multiple regression analysis was adopted to assess the effect of risk characteristics on consumer risk perception in terms of perceived health, psychological, financial, time and taste risks. All five regression models were highly significant. Characteristics of risk, such as severity of consequences, concern about safety, involuntary exposure to risk, harmful to the environment, information, exaggerated report and adequate regulations were found to be important for predicting consumer perception of microbiological risk in chicken. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Domestically produced food: Consumer perceptions of origin, safety and the issue of trust

It is becoming increasingly difficult for the public to attempt to assess risks using traditional methods such as smell, taste or other physical attributes of food. The existence of extrinsic cues such as the country of origin (COO) of food can help to make food purchase decisions easier for consumers. However, the use of extrinsic cues depends heavily on the extent to which consumers trust such signals to be indicative of quality or safety, which in turn depends on the credibility behind that cue. This paper aims to examine consumers association of domestically produced food with increased food safety standards and the association of COO and food safety information with socio-demographics and other aspects of consumer psychology such as attitudes, risk perception and trust. Using an ordered probit model, domestic production is examined as an extrinsic cue for food safety by looking at the relationship with trust in food safety information provided by national food standards agencies (NFSAs) and other socio-demographic characteristics, based on nationally representative data from 2725 face-to-face interviews across five European countries. Results suggest that domestic production of food is an extrinsic cue for food safety and as consumers place increasing importance on food safety they are more interested in food produced in their own country. This, coupled with consumer trust in a strong, and independent national food standards agency, suggests the potential exists for the increased consumption of domestically produced foods.     

Food Safety and Adverse Selection in Rural Maize Markets

Without enforced standards or reliable third-party verification, food safety threats such as pesticide residues and aflatoxin contamination are generally unobservable or only partially observable to both buyers and sellers, especially of staple foods in rural maize markets in sub-Saharan Africa. As a result, sellers have more information about food quality than do buyers. Such information asymmetries can impede market development and undermine human health. We study farm household behaviour in the context of imperfect food safety information. We pool observations obtained from 707 food storage containers maintained by 309 farm households in Benin, surveyed following the maize harvests of 2011/2012 and 2013/2014. Our results indicate that when a household perceives a food safety risk associated with application of insecticides, on average it is 33 percentage points less likely to apply insecticides to maize it intends to consume than it is to maize it intends to sell. These individuals are also more likely to sell maize than households without food safety concerns. Results highlight the potential value of improved storage technologies and quality control to promote market transactions and reduce hidden health risks.     

食品微生物检验技术质量控制探究

随着人们生活水平的逐步提高,食品安全问题成为关系民生的重要议题.食品安全和人体健康密切相关,食品微生物检验作为衡量食品质量和卫生的重要指标,对食品安全的重要性不言而喻.食品微生物检验是食品质量检验的重要环节,它包括分子生物学技术、免疫学方法多种检测技术,其检测的准确性会受到环境、样品、人员、培养基等多种因素的影响.本文...     

Valuing the benefits and costs of improved food safety and nutrition

Assuring the quality of food products, especially their safety and nutrition levels, is an increasing focus for governments, companies, and international trade bodies. In choosing quality assurance programs, public and private decision-makers must assess the benefits and costs of expected improvements in food safety and nutrition. This article discusses methods for measuring these benefits and costs as well as how these valuations are related to the mix of voluntary and mandatory quality management systems used in particular countries or trading blocs. These relationships are illustrated by a short case study of safety assurance systems for meat and poultry products.     

Relating Consumer Willingness-to-Pay for Food Safety to Risk Tolerance: An Experimental Approach

This study investigates the role of risk tolerance in shaping Canadian consumers' willingness-to-pay for food safety risk reductions. Non-hypothetical experimental auctions were used to elicit consumer valuations of food safety improvement. To identify the relationship between food safety concern and risk-reduction valuations, individual risk-perception scores are constructed based on questionnaire responses. Results show willingness-to-pay for improved food safety tends to decrease as individuals become more risk tolerant. Differences in bids across naïve and informed rounds of bidding tend to become smaller with risk tolerance for individuals who initially overestimated the food safety risk.     

高校食堂食品安全与学生营养管理体系研究

当前食品安全问题是社会大众最关切的话题之一,随着物质生活条件的改善,人们对于食品安全和营养价值都有了更高的要求,不再是一味地追求温饱。当前高校学生在食品选择上普遍关注食品的价格、性价比、口味,而对食品的营养价值和安全没有足够的重视。尽管当前高校在食品安全和食品营养价值上已经做出了很大的改进并得到了社会大众的普遍认可,但在某些环节上仍有待提升。本文分析了太原市高校食堂食品安全与学生营养管理,针对现状提出了相应的改进措施,旨在规范高校食堂的管理,保障学生在校的饮食安全与健康。