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This study aims to determine the extent to which consumers perceive food-related information to be tied to the intrinsic characteristics of food, particularly safety.

The authors examined Japanese consumers’ preferences regarding domestic or foreign perishables, as well as how they interpret origin information, focusing on their perceptions of safety using descriptive analysis and binary logistic regression analysis.

The results indicated that a high proportion of Japanese consumers considered domestic foods to be safer; in particular, people affected by food safety information obtained through personal communication, books and magazines tended to choose domestically produced perishables rather than imported ones.

The belief that domestic foods are safer than imported ones was highly universal among Japanese consumers, although this belief is not necessarily grounded in scientific evidence. When considering strategies to improve consumers’ information literacy, factors that have fostered this belief must be discussed. For consumers to make logical food choices, both food businesses and consumers require scientific and informational literacy and policy support.

Many grain exporting/importing countries implement temporary trade policies to intervene in grain trade volume during food crises. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of Chinese soybean trade policies on the domestic soybean market during the food crisis.

A Markov switching error correction model is constructed for the empirical analysis. Market integration, market equilibrium and market stability are compared among three regimes: the normal state, crisis state and post-crisis state. In order to reduce the disturbance from external markets factors on the results, the US soybean market is selected as a control group in that it did not use any soybean intervention trade policies during the food crisis.

The empirical results indicate that China’s temporary soybean trade policies lead to a decrease in market integration between domestic and international soybean markets and a reduction in domestic soybean market stability.

It is the first time that China’s soybean market is selected as a sample and case on this issue. The regime shifting non-linear model could be more applicable because there exists a non-linear transmission relationship between grains markets during food crises. The results imply that China’s temporary soybean trade policies do not improve market integration and stability. China should reconsider implementing soybean trade intervening policies to protect the domestic market and safeguard food security.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumers’ intention to buy domestic food applying the theory of planned behavior. Based on this framework, the authors investigate the moderating effects of consumer ethnocentrism and self-construal.

To test the conceptual model, a cross-sectional study from a random sample of Norwegian consumers was employed. A total of 501 consumers filled out the web-based survey. The data were analyzed by means of confirmatory factor analysis and multiple regression.

The results show that subjective norm and perceived behavioral control (PBC) both have positive significant effects on consumers’ intention to buy domestic food. Attitude also has a positive effect but is only significant on the ten percent level. The effect of subjective norm is reduced with increasing levels of ethnocentrism, and the effect of PBC is reduced when consumers are collectivistic rather than individualistic.

This study provides the food industry with useful information about which mechanisms underlie the consumers’ intention to buy domestic food. In addition the study provides useful insight into how different personality characteristics affect the consumers’ intentions.

The aims of this study were to assess the food safety knowledge amongst domestic workers in the UAE and test the association between their socio-demographic characteristics and food safety knowledge.

A non-probabilistic sample of 231 domestic workers who help families in food preparation and/or cooking participated in this cross-sectional study. The participants completed a questionnaire composed of socio-demographic characteristics and four different aspects of food safety knowledge (personal hygiene, food poisoning, cross-contamination and temperature control).

It was observed that the domestic workers had inadequate knowledge about food safety with an overall food safety knowledge score of 32.9%. Total knowledge of “personal hygiene” and “cross-contamination” was relatively higher (46.2 and 43.9%, respectively) than that of “food poisoning” (18.1%) and “temperature control” (23.3%). A significant (P-value < 0.05) association was observed between overall food safety knowledge and marital status, age and education level, but not nationality of domestic workers (Asian or African).

The findings of this study are expected to encourage policy makers mandate food safety trainings for this segment of the population besides helping them in creating awareness and training programs regarding food safety.

We formally investigate the effects of an inspection system influencing safety of foreign and domestic food products in the domestic market. Consumers purchase domestic and imported food and value safety. Potential protectionism à la Fisher and Serra (2000) can arise: inspection frequency imposed on foreign producers set by a domestic social planner would be higher than the corresponding policy set by a global social planner treating all producers as domestic. The domestic social planner tends to impose most if not all of the inspection on foreign producers, which improves food safety for consumers and limits the production loss for domestic producers. Despite this protectionist component, inspections address a potential consumption externality such as health hazard in the domestic country when unsafe food can enter the country undetected. We then calibrate the analytical framework to the U.S. shrimp market incorporating key stylized facts of this market. Identifying protectionist inspection requires much information on inspection, safety, damages, and costs. We also investigate how to finance the inspection policy from a social planner perspective. Financing instruments differ between the domestic and international welfare-maximizing objectives.

The paper investigates household food waste at domestic gatherings. It explains how surplus food and food waste are generated, managed and disposed of at gatherings hosted in homes. It reveals how hosts negotiate their social duties to be generous and moral duties to avoid food waste.

Twenty-eight in-depth interviews were conducted with female, Saudi citizens and analyzed thematically using Braun and Clarke's approach. Goffman's theoretical concepts were deployed later in the analysis process to expose the complex nature of hospitality practices.

It reveals two main insights. First, the hosts' social duties involve staging the dinner table in line with hospitality norms. Such a staging almost always results in large amounts of surplus, but is necessary to manage guests' impressions and avoid criticism. Second, the enactment of moral and religious beliefs helps to divert surplus food away from waste toward charitable giving and, thence, to other forms of consumption. The findings reveal the social and moral purposes that surplus food serves; it enables people to be generous and charitable.

Such insights provide guidance to practitioners by revealing how providing mechanisms for people to enact their existing moral beliefs can keep surplus food away from the waste stream.

It contributes to the limited food waste literature on domestic gatherings and moral and religious beliefs. Also, using Goffman's concepts adds depth to such an under-theorized area and a new lens to look at food waste-related practices as they are embedded within social interactions.

Domestic refrigerators could be considered as one of the major potential sources of food-borne diseases, in addition limited data are available regarding the level of contamination of domestic refrigerators in Iran. The purpose of this paper is to detect some of bacterial contamination in domestic refrigerators.

In total, 104 households were randomly selected from ten health centers in five areas of Tehran, Iran. Visual inspection and temperature evaluation of the households’ refrigerators were done. In addition, the refrigerators were swabbed and analyzed for contaminants using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. DNA was isolated and purified by the proposed standard protocol.

Screening of the domestic refrigerators by PCR method showed that 51.7 percent of the samples were positive for pathogens as follows: L. monocytogenes 41.6 percent, S. aureus 5.5 percent, Salmonella spp 4.6 percent, and E. coli O157:H7 0 percent; consequently, none of mentioned pathogens were detected in 48.3 percent of the refrigerators. Results of the visual inspection indicated that 57 percent of the refrigerators were on desirable, 36.5 percent were acceptable, and 7 percent were weak conditions. Most of the refrigerators about 44 percent had desirable temperatures. There were no significant correlations between the visual inspection scores, temperature and frequency of isolation of specific pathogens in the domestic refrigerators. A significant correlation was observed between contamination and education of parents (p < 0.05).

Determination of the bacterial contamination and evaluating the temperature of domestic refrigerators in Iran can be considered as a novel approach of current study. These findings could be employed in designing and implementing appropriate educational interventions to promote food safety and diminish the risk of food-borne illnesses. Also, obtained results might be applied as introduction for further investigations.

In the United States, successive farm bills and the 2007 Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) have largely defined domestic subsidy and conservation programs and U.S. food-aid initiatives over the past decade. This chapter examines the effects of the current mixture of U.S. agricultural policies and international food-aid programs on domestic and global food-insecure populations. A detailed research-based examination is carried out with respect to the impacts of U.S. subsidy programs on agricultural production, domestic and global agricultural commodity prices, and their implications for food-insecure populations. The impacts of the RFS are assessed along with the effects of current and potentially reformed U.S. international food-aid programs.

This study concludes that current U.S. agricultural subsidy programs have small or negligible impacts on the aggregate level and mixture of U.S. agricultural output, U.S. domestic prices and global prices, and domestic and global food insecurity among poor households. The RFS has increased prices for food and feed grain and oilseeds with adverse implications for the urban poor in developing countries and some poor U.S. households. The portfolios of U.S. food-aid programs are managed inefficiently because of congressional mandates designed to aid special interest groups that waste 30% of the current budget. While U.S. subsidy programs likely should be moderated for other reasons, they have few impacts on domestic and globally food-insecure households. However, in relation to global and domestic food insecurity, the RFS should be discontinued and major reforms to U.S. international food aid implemented.

The purpose of this paper is to provide information on the consumer management of refrigerated food, establish the level and the incidence of bacterial contamination and operating temperatures in domestic refrigerators from north and centre Italy.

A questionnaire was designed involving 24 questions which covered three topics: the socio-demographic data, the domestic management of refrigerated food and general information about the refrigerator. The questionnaire responses were subjected to descriptive statistical analysis and further processed with the multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) and cluster analysis (CA). Based on MCA and CA, 84 refrigerators were selected to assess the temperature and the microbiological status (total viable counts (TVC); Enterobacteriaceae total counts (ETC); Salmonella spp. and Listeria spp.).

Totally, 660 interviews were carried out. The majority of respondents were female (81.4 per cent) and were married (71.4 per cent). Almost an half of them were between 31 and 50 years old (48.2 per cent) and had a secondary school degree (47 per cent). Regarding domestic management of refrigerated food, the majority of respondents (87.2 per cent) were aware of the correct temperature range (1-5°C) for retail refrigerator units, but only 18 per cent of them check the temperature. Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella spp. were not recovered; Listeria innocua was recovered (2.4 per cent). Regarding the TVC values, the 21.5 per cent of the tested refrigerators were classified as insufficient (from 100 to 104 cfu/cm2) or inadequate (>104 cfu/cm2). Consumer education should be focused in order to reduce foodborne disease. Only safety-conscious consumers can become active partners within the food safety chain.

Result obtained from the present survey revealed that consumers are not familiar with their role in the food safety chain and that they allow numerous opportunities for microbiological contamination of food. The study clearly indicates the need for greater consumer education regarding proper domestic refrigerator management. Indeed, appropriate behaviours could make the refrigerator less likely to act as a significant niche for persistence and dissemination of food pathogens.

China has witnessed low and stable consumer price inflation in conjunction with high and volatile food price inflation over the past decade. The purpose of this paper is to examine questions about whether or not the link between consumer price inflation and food price inflation has weakened and the determinants of consumer price inflation.

This paper explores these questions by estimating error correction terms for monetary and external sectors using the Johansen cointegration method.

Empirical results suggest that the link between consumer price inflation and food prices has not been weakened, food price inflation, especially cereal price inflation, remains a significant driving force for overall consumer price inflation, and international food prices also play a significant role in determining China's inflation dynamics.

The paper construct a multivariate dynamic model that features the link between consumer price inflation and its potential driving variables. It also develops error correction models for food price, non-food price and consumer price inflation, which can accommodate dynamic interactions among the underlying variables.