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Food safety knowledge and hygienic practices by food handlers play an important role in the prevention of contamination of food prepared.

This descriptive survey was conducted in Maseru around the taxi ranks amongst 48 food handlers and 93 consumers using a semi-structured questionnaire for assessing food handler knowledge, attitudes and practices, open-ended questionnaire for obtaining consumer perceptions and observation checklist.

Majority of the food handlers were females (60%) and males constituted only (40%). The mean age was 35.5 ± 10.3 and 28.2 ± 9.9 respectively for street vendors and consumers. There was a statistically significant difference in knowledge among the trained and untrained vendors (p = 0040). On average the vendor population that participated in this study was considered to have poor knowledge (scores < 50%) of food safety since they scored 49% ± 11, while 84% of the respondents were considered to have positive attitudes towards food safety. Only 6% of the consumers reported that they never buy street vended foods mainly due to the hygiene issues. The observation checklist showed that the vendors operated under unhygienic conditions and that there was scarcity of clean water supply and hand washing facilities.

This study provides knowledge that was previously unknown about food vending in Lesotho. It has significantly added to the body of knowledge on food safety in Lesotho which can be used to modify policies and structure food safety training for people involved in the informal trade.

Unsafe food consumption results in adverse health conditions, foodborne illness and undernutrition among households and communities. The consumption of food contaminated with harmful microorganisms or with harmful pesticide residuals results in adverse health conditions and undernutrition. However, there are a number of challenges to maintaining food safety in the food systems of developing countries, like Nepal, where awareness of food safety is low and research on these issues is lacking.

We conducted an experiment among youth aged between 20 and 26 years in Nepal to assess their food safety awareness and affinity to safer fresh produce choices. In the classroom setting experimentations with and without information nudges conducted among 224 youth participants, participants chose one fresh produce packet among the four. We analyzed results using multinomial and mixed logit models appropriate for discrete choice modeling.

We found that the youth’s perceived higher importance of sustainable food systems and their knowledge levels on microbial contamination and foodborne illnesses play significantly positive roles. The likelihood of choosing microbial safety-labeled fresh produce or both microbial- and chemical safety-labeled fresh produce increased with nudging among those who have some knowledge of microbial contamination and foodborne illnesses – we found that the interaction of nudging and level of knowledge is significantly positive. Youth belonging to higher income classes do not necessarily have a higher affinity to safer fresh produce but with nudging, the higher income class youth have a higher likelihood of choosing safer fresh produce choices.

Youth engagement and their awareness of food safety could be one of the important strategies to potentially develop them as effective promoters, adopters and educators in enhancing food safety in food systems in Nepal. Our predicted premium for food safety attributes points to the potential scope for the emerging market segment or business opportunities augmenting food safety in Nepal.

We examined the factors influencing the safer fresh produce choices among youth in Nepal. We tested whether awareness levels of microbial contamination and foodborne illness and information nudging affect the likelihood of safer fresh produce choice. Then we predicted the willingness to pay (premium) for safety attributes. To the best of our knowledge, none of the previous studies have examined this aspect in Nepal.

This paper analyses Hanoi consumers' evaluation of food risk and response to the perceived risk.

The authors employed the mixed method approach that integrates segmentation analysis on the survey data and information from group discussions.

Based on consumers' risk rating of six food groups and level of food safety worry, the authors identified four distinct consumer segments: low, moderate, high and very-high-risk perception. The authors found the existence of widespread food safety concerns among Hanoi consumers. Living in an urban region was associated with a higher level of food risk perception. Moderate, high and very-high-risk perception segments exhibited a very low level of institutional trust and subjective control over hazards. Response to the perceived risk differed across segments. “Very high-risk perception” was associated with the most risk-averse behaviour, putting more effort into seeking food safety information and engaging more in supermarket purchase. Consumers with a low and moderate perceived food risk participate more in self-supply of food to reduce their food safety concern.

The paper provides empirical evidence on consumers' evaluation of food risk and their risk-reducing strategies to support the risk communication in Vietnam.

Enhancing institutional trust and risk communication including hazard education can improve consumer confidence in food.

This is the first segmentation study on consumer food risk perception in Vietnam.

The purpose of this study was to investigate restaurant employee behaviors and their likelihood of intervening when witnessing food safety threats.

A mixed method was used for this study with the focus group interview and survey questionnaire. A total of eight focus groups ranging in number of participants from to 6 to 12 were asked to respond to presented scenarios that depicted restaurant employees committing food safety risk behaviors and threats in the restaurant environment that would present food safety risks such as out-of-stock bathroom supplies, dirty tables in the restaurant dining area, employee personal hygiene issues and unclean production equipment. These participants were also asked to complete a draft of the survey that would later be edited and distributed to the sample population.

Results suggest that social norms and perceived severity of threats impact the likelihood that restaurant employees will intervene. Implications for academics and practitioners are discussed.

This study was special as it provides a synthetic viewpoint that considers how service organizations can work to do a better job of interviewing employees before starting their jobs about their beliefs and personal practices of food safety at home, their previous work in the restaurant industry and food safety culture that they may have worked in before, as well as increasing the communication in restaurants to build a food safety culture. These practices can help to lower risks to the public regarding food safety and can help to build relationship trust in the brands that we all love to indulge in when dining out.

This cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate the compliance of hygienic and technical standards of street food vendors in Slovenia with the requirements of the general hygienic food principals set in the Codex Alimentarius and Regulation (EC) No. 852/2004 on the hygiene of foodstuffs.

Food vendors were observed directly and discretely using a semi-structured observation sheet that allowed fast evaluation. The employee's behaviour was not affected during the observations because they were not aware of being observed. Each observation lasted approximately 30 min. Food vendors were divided into groups according to their location, type of facility, number of employees and type of food sold.

Depending on the type of street vendor, more inconsistencies were found amongst food stands compared to food trucks and kiosks. Most food trucks and kiosks scored very high in both personal and hygienic-technical standards. Some of the major inconsistencies were lack of suitably located washbasins, improper hand-washing technique, improper waste management, working surfaces that were inadequately separated from consumers, and inconsistent maintenance of the cold chain. Food handlers have been confirmed as a critical risk factor.

Despite methodology validation, the data was collected by a single observer, limiting the ability to obtain a more reliable estimate of the observations. The sample was disproportionate according to the type of street food facilities.

The results provide a basis for (1) national professional guidelines of good hygiene practices for food business operators, which should cover street food vendors more extensively in future updates, and (2) the development of food safety training programmes tailored for street vendors.

The study provides valuable insights into current hygienic-technical conditions of the street food vending sector.

Fresh vegetables contain advantageous phytochemical components, making them one of the most significant sources of nutrition. The threat of harmful bacteria still exists because these vegetables are not heated in restaurants before being consumed. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the microbial quality of fresh vegetables in restaurants of different levels.

A total of 499 fresh vegetable samples (from sandwiches and fresh-cut vegetable salads) were collected from 3 different types of food service establishment: 201 from international restaurants (IRs), 210 from national restaurants (NRs), and 88 from cafeterias (CAs). The samples were prepared and inoculated on specific growth media. The aerobic mesophilic bacteria (AMB) Campylobacter spp., Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), Enterobacteriaceae, Escherichia coli (E. coli) and yeast and molds were counted, and Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp. and Escherichia coli O157 were detected using specialized medium.

High counts of S. aureus, above 3 log cfu/g, suggested that 71.5% of samples collected from NRs and 77.3% from CA were not accepted, whereas 81.6% of samples collected from IRs were accepted. The low population of E. coli, less than 2 log cfu/g, suggested that 99.0, 97 and 92.0 % of samples collected from IRs, NRs and CA, respectively, were accepted. Listeria monocytogenes and Escherichia coli O157 were absent from every sample. One sample was positive for Salmonella spp. in each of the NR and CA sample groups.

RIs adhere to health and hygiene standards better than NRs and CAs, according to the findings of vegetable contamination tests.

The theory of consumption values (TCV) has successfully explained much consumer choice behavior, but few studies have investigated the values that drive food-delivery application (FDA) use. This study aims to bridge this gap by extending the TCV to the FDA context to examine food consumption-related values and interpreting and rechristening generic consumption values to adapt the TCV to the FDA context.

An explorative mixed-method research approach was taken to conduct focus group discussions with 20 target users to develop the questionnaire and then administer it for a cross-sectional survey (pen and pencil) to FDA users aged 22–65 years; 423 complete responses so received were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The findings show that epistemic value (“visibility”) is the chief driver of purchase intentions toward FDAs, followed by conditional (“affordances”), price (part of functional value) and social value (“prestige”). Food-safety concerns and health consciousness (proposed as part of functional value) did not share any statistically significant association with purchase intentions toward FDAs.

The findings of this study are insightful for FDA service providers competing for higher shares in the market by helping them understand ways to influence consumer choices and purchase intentions.

It is the first study that combines FDAs 2014 an online service that it is attracting a lot of investment 2014and TCV which has continued to be one of the most relevant theories of consumer behavior. It extends the TCV by adapting it to the FDA context with food-consumption-related values. Thus, it adds to the relatively scant literature on FDAs on the whole which is essential, as FDAs represent the business model of new economy, i.e. online-to-offline (O2O). Finally, this study formulates a conceptual framework that may serve as the basis of future research.

Food safety is an important characteristic of food, because it influences health. Perception of food hazards is a complex issue. Consumers have different perceptions regarding the probability of a hazard occurring in different food groups. If a hazard appears in the food, it has severe consequences. This is not only because of the negative impact on health and life but also because of the entire economy and image of producers.

A survey using the Computer-Assisted Web Interviewing method was conducted in January 2020 in Poland with 2,000 respondents to collect information about consumers' perception of food safety and lack of food safety.

It was shown that this perception depends mainly on gender and the decisiveness on food purchase. The similarity of the country from which the hazard comes as well as the scientists' knowledge about the hazard influences hazard perception by consumers. If a hazard appears in food, it has serious consequences for consumers, food chain actors, public finance and so on. The occurrence of food hazards causes consumers to stop buying this food product.

This study provides interesting information about consumers' perception of the lack of food safety. These results can be used by food producers and food safety authorities. The results also provide input information for further research on the perception of food safety in various types of food products.

This study used the literature review and the modified Delphi method to evaluate the importance of the catering quality indices of university canteens in China. In order to compile the catering quality indices of university canteens in China as reference for the subsequent improvement of Chinese canteens.

This study first analysed literature data to establish the preliminary quality indices and used the modified Delphi method for measurement. After three rounds of Delphi analysis by 35 experts, the results of the catering quality indices of university canteens in China are summarised.

The research results show that university canteen catering quality issues are divided into six dimensions, including catering safety management, employee hygiene management, catering service, food quality, environmental atmosphere and corporate social responsibility. Catering safety management is the most important index, followed by employee hygiene management.

The research results can be used as suggestions for follow-up improvements in the quality of university canteens in China and a basis of reference for amendments to relevant national or local laws and regulations. The food prices, food quality and whether food hygiene and safety standards are met by university canteens are all related to the health and vital interests of the teachers and students, as well as the stability of the university. Therefore, the government should increase supervision in these aspects to avoid decline in the quality of meals due to low profits and enforce strict requirements for food safety.

Purpose – This study aimed to describe the typhoid fever profiles based on the examination of IgM anti Salmonella in Cut Meutia Hospital, North Aceh, Indonesia, in 2016–2017.

Design/Methodology/Approach – IgM anti-Salmonella is a serological test which more quickly and accurately diagnoses typhoid fever. This is a cross-sectional study that used secondary data from medical records of a pediatric unit of patients diagnosed with typhoid fever from September 2016 to September 2017. This research identified 469 children based on age, sex, length of stay (LOS), and IgM anti-Salmonella test by univariate analysis.

Findings – The results showed that 56 children (12%) aged 1–5 years old, 164 children (34.9%) aged 6–11 years old, and 246 children (53.1%) > 12 years old, and among them, 46.8% were male. There were 53.7% who had +≥ 6 of IgM anti-Salmonella test and 46.3% had +4 to +5. We found that LOS less than 7 days was 81.4% and LOS more than 7 days was 18.6%. Typhoid fever profiles in Cut Meutia Hospital were common in children aged >12 years old, females, had +≥ 6 of IgM anti-Salmonella test, and LOS less than 7 days.

Research Limitations/Implications – Typhoid fever is an acute systemic infection caused by Salmonella enteric, a serotype typhi. Typhoid fever commonly attacks children and the symptoms experienced were lighter than adults.

Practical Implications – LOS in children with typhoid fever in this research concluded that there were more children with LOS < 7 days compared with those with a duration of ≥ 7 days, that is 382 children (81.4%) and 87 children (18.6%), respectively.

Originality value – From this research, it is concluded that there were 217 children (46.3%) diagnosed with typhoid fever with IgM anti-Salmonella test ranging from +4 up to +5 and 252 children (53.7%) with IgM anti-Salmonella test ≥ 6.