Ebook: Consumer Food Safety

Purpose – Consumers have an important role to play in preventing food-borne disease. The purposeof this study was to demonstrate that consumers could be segmented successfully based on their foodsafety knowledge and practice.Design/methodology/approach – Principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical clusteranalysis (HCA) were applied to data on food safety knowledge and practice, collected by individualface-to-face questionnaires with domestic food preparers (n ¼ 1; 020) and refrigerator swabs(n ¼ 726).Findings – From the food safety questionnaires four factors were identified as important forinclusion in the HCA. This analysis identified three groups of consumers based on the knowledgefactors; they were “Conscientious” (21 per cent), “Cavalier” (25.4 per cent) and “Careful” (53.3 per cent)food handlers. In terms of food safety knowledge, the higher risk consumers were found to be in theCavalier food handler group. This group of food handlers also engaged in less hygienic food handlingpractices. This group were more likely than the other groups to be less than 45 years of age, male,living in urban environments and those with higher levels of formal education.Originality/value – The identification of consumer groups with respect to food safety is importantas it can inform more effective tailoring and targeting of food consumer safety education programmesto reach higher risk groups and individuals. This is the first study to not only identify thedemographic characteristics of higher risk groups, but also to relate the levels of food safetyknowledge/practice to levels of contamination in the fridges of such at risk groups using HCA andPCA. Previously published in: British Food Journal, Volume 107, Number 7, 2005