Food safety knowledge, attitudes, and eating behavior in the advent of the global coronavirus pandemic.

Zhe Liu,Cong Shen,Anthony N Mutukumira,Dejan Dragan

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0261832

Zhe Liu, Cong Shen + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0261832

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Journal: PloS one	Publication Date: Dec 31, 2021
Citations: 5	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Henan University of Technology, Massey University

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationships of food safety knowledge, attitude and eating behavior of consumers during national lockdowns in the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 157 respondents completed the online survey using a structured questionnaire worldwide. Overall, the respondents exhibited good attitude and good knowledge towards public health including food safety especially on the importance of social distancing, mask wearing, well-balanced diet, physical exercise and personal hygiene, such as hand washing during the pandemic lockdowns. A Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to test the relationships among food safety knowledge, attitude and behavior under the pandemic conditions. Results showed that attitude towards food safety under the coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns positively affected the eating behavior of the respondents, which exhibited a high β (0.686) among the variables tested (p<0.05). Food safety knowledge was apparently not affected by the food safety behavior of the respondents.

Highlights

The COVID-19 pandemic that emerged in 2019 has imposed huge consequences on public health and economic losses, which continue to affect many aspects of our daily life globally
The recent SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic has affected multiple aspects of our food systems, and has provided opportunities for societies to take a close look at early topics under this crisis [63]
Results of this study indicated that the respondents exhibited good attitude and good knowledge towards public health including food safety especially on the importance of social distancing, mask wearing, well-balanced diet, physical exercise and personal hygiene, Food safety knowledge, attitudes, and eating behavior such as hand washing during the pandemic lockdowns

Summary

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic that emerged in 2019 has imposed huge consequences on public health and economic losses, which continue to affect many aspects of our daily life globally. According to World Health Organization (WHO), there have been over 227 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, including nearly 5 million deaths as of September 2021 [1]. Possible reasons for the crisis included the continued spread of transmission of variants of concern (VOCs), relaxation of public health and social measures (PHSM) and human fatigue around adhering to PSHM measures [2]. That means basic public health measures, such as Nucleic Acid Amplification Tests, contact tracing, isolation, supervised quarantine, optimal care, avoiding crowds, exercising, physical distancing, routine hand hygiene, wearing masks, and ensuring efficient ventilation of dwelling, remain very important under current pandemic. The early cases of COVID-19 were presumed to be linked to the Huanan Marine

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