Recent high profile food safety incidents in the United Kingdom have shaken
consumer confidence in food products. Consumer perception of risk is seen to be
very relevant to food safety issues. The impact of this perceived risk on purchase
behaviour is also critical to the development of risk management strategies by
authorities responsible for public health and the food industry. Focusing on fresh
chicken meat products, this study explored the relationship between food risk
characteristics, consumer perception of food safety related risk, consumer purchase
behaviour and actions that can be taken to reduce the exposure to food risk.
Following an extensive literature review, an exploratory study in the form of face-toface
interviews was carried out to clarify the main concerns of food hazards, and to
identify the items of perceived consequent loss and risk reducing strategies adopted
by consumers. The findings were verified through a quantitative survey of 200
respondents. The data was presented in the form of Structural Equation Modelling,
and analysed by the LISREL 8.30 statistical package. The results showed that
consumer risk perception was affected by a range of risk characteristics, such as
consumer concern about the severity of the food risk, and the potential long-term
adverse effect on future generation and environment. The main elements of perceived
loss associated with food safety were health, financial, time, lifestyle and taste losses,
and these were shown to have a negative effect on purchase likelihood. Two other
risk characteristics namely, perceived knowledge and own control of the food risk
were found to be linked directly and positively to consumer purchase likelihood. Risk
reducing strategies such as branded product, product quality assurance and product
information adopted by consumers were identified and found to be consistent with the
marketing strategies used by the food industry. These risk-reducing strategies have a
negative relationship with consumer risk perception.
This study presented empirical evidence for characterising types of food risks and
explains how food risks and risk reducing strategies affect consumer risk perception
as well as purchase likelihood. Consequently, two quantitative consumer food
purchase models were developed. These models can help the government and the food
industry to identify key factors to develop systematic strategies for risk management
and risk communication in order to allocate resources efficiently and effectively. They
can also use these models to measure the effectiveness of their risk management
policy in the times of concern about food safety.
This study recommends further research to apply these models in other types of food
products and other types of risk, such as chemical risk, and technological risk, in
particular for those risks which are beyond the control of consumers. The differences
in risk perception between cultures and socio-economic groupings should be explored
further. This is a valid topic for further research and provides potential benefits for
consumers and food industry as a whole.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:CRANFIELD1/oai:dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk:1826/821 |
| Date | 07 1900 |
| Creators | Yeung, Ruth Mo Wah |
| Contributors | Morris, Joe |
| Publisher | Cranfield University, Cranfield University at Silsoe |
| Source Sets | CRANFIELD1 |
| Language | en_UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis or dissertation, Doctoral, PhD |
| Format | 1944 bytes, 2775293 bytes, text/plain, application/pdf |
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