Abstract
This study developed and evaluated risk communication messages for ready to eat (RTE) foods targeted towards consumer storage practices in a food safety health campaign. Concepts were determined from a fractional factorial design of five categories of attributes potentially present in health promotion: title, message, graphic, slogan, and icon. Consumers viewed a subset of concepts and scored how useful the concept was in remembering to throw away RTE foods that were stored too long. Regression analysis determined which combinations of message attributes were most likely to result in using the information to throw out foods, which could help prevent foodborne illness. Findings showed that for this type of information, a graphic is a critical element for the printed schematic. The slogan (i.e., a short statement similar to a jingle or tag-line in a commercial) may be important to consumers, but the icon was not important.
Highlights
Changes in population demographics, the wide variety of foods we eat, and the global nature of our food supply are some of the factors that influence the prevalence of foodborne illness [1].The continuing evolution of lifestyles has definite implications for what consumers eat, where food is obtained, how food is prepared and where food is prepared—all important dimensions for food safety.Van Loo et al [2] showed that consumers chose ready to eat (RTE) foods because they were convenient, tasted good, and were perceived as nutritious and safe
Recent research [68] using a similar conjoint analysis (CA) approach to develop a label for a health-related attribute of products showed that a majority of consumers were influenced by some variables more than others
Attributes were determined during in-person discussion by five researchers who had previous experience with health messages and prior publications related to consumer food safety issues
Summary
The continuing evolution of lifestyles has definite implications for what consumers eat, where food is obtained, how food is prepared and where food is prepared—all important dimensions for food safety. Van Loo et al [2] showed that consumers chose ready to eat (RTE) foods because they were convenient, tasted good, and were perceived as nutritious and safe. Consumers’ increased reliance on foods that are convenient, portable, and quick/easy to prepare has led to increased consumption of RTE foods. RTE foods are usually consumed without further preparation by the consumer (i.e., without cooking or treatment that could kill bacteria); it is important that these products are handled and stored properly. In lower and middle income countries RTE foods often are sold by venders and may be exposed to higher temperatures and contaminants such as insects and rodents [5]
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