Consumer perceptions of food safety risk: Evidence from a segmentation study in Albania

Abstract

Albania is facing serious problems with the national food safety control system in terms of legislation, control and enforcement. The objective of this paper is to analyse consumer perceptions about safety of small ruminant meat in Tirana, in a context of weak enforcement of the food safety system. Applying two-step clustering analyses, consumers were classified in four socio-demographic clusters, and it was found that the cluster composed of female consumers with lower education and income levels, and the two clusters composed of male consumers perceive consumed meat as safe. Consumers in the cluster composed of females with university education and higher income are, on average, more concerned with current meat safety measures and tend to place more trust in the veterinarian stamp on meat carcasses rather than in local butchers.