Abstract
AbstractWe study the effects of food safety awareness on consumers’ milk purchasing behavior in Nepal. We conducted consumer survey and employed an instrumental variable regression. We find education, income, and social network to influence food safety consciousness (FSC). Our results indicate the positive impact of FSC on weekly milk expenditure and probability of purchasing milk from milk cooperatives. Any policy that helps to improve the FSC levels will likely increase the purchase of safe milk from the modern market outlet, and lack of such awareness raising policies has prevented the market for safe food from evolving and expanding.
Highlights
Low adoption of the food safety measures, inadequate storage and mishandling of food products post-harvest, and use of unsafe food additives and chemicals are major food safety issues in developing countries (Grace, 2015; Kader and Rolle, 2004; Kumar et al, 2017; Thapa et al, 2019)
Since incorporating all these variables that measure similar concepts can introduce collinearity in the regression analysis, we use factor analysis to combine multiple statements into a single factor, that is, the food safety consciousness index (FSCI) which we use to measure the level of consumer awareness and attitudes toward food safety
While assessing the consumers’ perception of food safety reflected by the percent of households that agree with the respective food safety statements, we find about 70% of households agree or strongly agree that food safety certification needs to be made mandatory; 65% of households agree or strongly agree that an additional cost should be incurred for a trace-back system; yet 45% agree or strongly agree that food safety risk is less significant than other common risks; and 74% agree or strongly agree that safe foods need to be produced at an increased cost
Summary
Low adoption of the food safety measures, inadequate storage and mishandling of food products post-harvest, and use of unsafe food additives and chemicals are major food safety issues in developing countries (Grace, 2015; Kader and Rolle, 2004; Kumar et al, 2017; Thapa et al, 2019). Milk expenditure (Rs) Quantity of milk (liters) purchased by a household in a week Food safety consciousness index FSC scale (summation of the Likert scales) Milk consumption of less than three times in a week (1 = Yes, 0 = No) Distance traveled (meters) to collect water HH receives information from doctor/veterinarian (1 = Yes, 0 = No) Information received from media (1 = Yes, 0 = No) Information received from social network (1 = Yes, 0 = No) Percentage of HH members less than or equal to 5 years old Male-headed household (1 = Yes, 0 = No) Total number of family members Age of the respondent HH head is illiterate (1 = Yes, 0 = No) Eldest female member has earned at least a bachelor’s degree (1 = Yes, 0 = No) Agriculture is a major occupation (1 = Yes, 0 = No) Household head receives annual salary Description of the variables Household head is self-employed (1 = Yes, 0 = No) Household head is a trader (1 = Yes, 0 = No) Monthly income less than Rs 15,000 Monthly income greater than Rs 15,000 and less than Rs 20,000. Milk purchased from formal markets is perceived to be safe for consumption and fetches higher prices in comparison to the milk purchased from informal milk outlets
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