Abstract
The publication of inspection grades at food establishments has been introduced as a way to inform consumers about restaurants' food safety levels. This two-part study explored consumers' perceptions and behavioural intentions raised by the Finnish food safety inspection report Oiva. The first part of the study explored university students' (n = 98) spontaneous perceptions raised by the inspection grade, communicated with a smiley face. Perceptions related to food safety risk and one's own behaviour were most frequent. In the second part, these perceptions were used in testing the full food safety inspection report on a nationally representative sample of the 18–65 years old Finnish population (n = 1513) with a survey-experiment approach. Binary logistic and linear regressions revealed that lower inspection grades were directly associated with increased perceived food safety risk and a behavioural intention not to eat at the restaurant when the effect of perceived food safety risk was taken into account. Information about the risk type moderated the effect of lower inspection grades on perceived risk and behavioural intention. These results underline the importance of providing additional information to consumers about the type of food safety risk.
Highlights
Many occurrences of foodborne illnesses by consumers are associated with eating at restaurants (Finnish Food Authority, 2016)
Correct reading was associated with a reduced perceived food safety risk and an intention to eat at the restaurant (Table 6). This two-part study explored how Finnish consumers interpret food safety information disclosed in the food safety inspection report Oiva
The first part of the study explored the spontaneous perceptions elicited by the smiley face representing the grade of Oiva inspection result
Summary
Many occurrences of foodborne illnesses by consumers are associated with eating at restaurants (Finnish Food Authority, 2016). The assessment of personal food safety risk of a restaurant is challenging for consumers because they cannot observe many aspects of restaurants' food safety level. A public food safety information disclosure system is effective if consumers use it to avoid eating at restaurants that practice poor hygiene standards (Aik, Newall, Ng, Kirk, & Heywood, 2018). The provision of food safety inspection results has been found to shift consumer demand toward restaurants with higher hygiene standards (Choi, Nelson, & Almanza, 2011; Henson et al, 2006; Knight, Worosz, & Todd, 2007). In order to improve the effectiveness of food safety inspection reports as a form of risk communication it is important to understand how consumers interpret and use them
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