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The purpose of this paper is to review the nature and extent of foodborne diseases in India due to chemical and microbial agents.

The scientific investigations/reports on outbreak of foodborne diseases in India for the past 29 (1980‐2009) years due to adulteration, chemical, and microbiological contamination have been reviewed. Reported scientific information on foodborne pathogens detected and quantified in Indian foods has also been reviewed.

A total of 37 outbreaks involving 3,485 persons who have been affected due to food poisoning have been reported in India. Although the common forms of foodborne diseases are those due to bacterial contamination of foods, however, higher numbers of deaths have been observed due to chemical contaminants in foods.

A national foodborne disease surveillance system needs to be developed in India in order to enable effective detection, control and prevention of foodborne disease outbreaks.

Unsafe food can lead to various foodborne diseases and even death, especially among children. This paper aims to assess food safety knowledge and changes in practices and concerns among adults ≥ 18 years during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

A cross-sectional, web-based survey was conducted among 325 adults living in Northern India. Demographic data and information regarding their knowledge, practices and concerns about various food safety issues were collected to see if there were any changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The results showed that the participants had slightly higher than average knowledge and good food safety practices with mean scores of 9.75 ± 2.23 and 24.87 ± 2.28, respectively. Contracting COVID-19 from food and food packaging materials was of high concern for more than 70% of the participants. Majority (> 80%) of them reported an increase in the frequency of handwashing. About 16% of the participants used chemical disinfectants for washing fruits and vegetables. An increase (57.5%) in the frequency of food label reading was also noted during the pandemic. Freshness and the general quality of food items (49.5%), safety of food (30.8%) and cost (18.2%) were the top drivers that influenced the purchase decision.

This study highlighted the need to send out clear messages on safe food handling practices and keeping the tempo up for sustaining good hygienic practices. This will help in reducing the risk of foodborne diseases.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the indirect effects of nutritional knowledge and attitude toward food label use on food label use through self-efficacy and trust, as well as whether gender moderates this relationship.

A sample of Indian adults with multiple chronic conditions was surveyed about their nutritional knowledge, attitude, self-efficacy and use of food labels. Hypotheses were tested using Hayes’s (2013) PROCESS macro for SPSS.

The results show that nutritional knowledge and attitude toward food label use positively predict food label use through self-efficacy and trust. However, these mediation effects are moderated by gender such that the indirect relationship is stronger among men than women.

Food marketers and government agencies engaged in nutrition education campaigns should aim to increase patients’ confidence in comprehending food label information.

Since food labels can be a valuable tool to help patients with chronic diseases to make informed decisions about their diet and lifestyle, regulators may consider mandating nutritional labels on foods to help them improve their food or dietary choices.

This study uniquely applies Fisher and Fisher’s (1992) information–motivation–behavioral skills model as a theoretical framework to examine the influence of nutrition knowledge and attitude toward food label use on food label usage of Indian patients with multiple chronic diseases.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how young Polish consumers perceive the selected sources of information on foodstuffs. The authors have also taken into account the consumers’ comprehension, hierarchy of importance and use of labels on food products.

The survey sample consisted of a group of respondents aged 16-24. The participants were students of secondary schools and universities located in Poland, on the territory of Mazovian Voivodeship. The questionnaires were distributed among the respondents: the χ² test was used to show the impact of demographic variables, while the Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient was applied to examine the relationship between the respondents’ attentiveness to the information contained on the food packaging and its legibility and comprehensibility.

The study ascertained the existence of differences in the perception of the reliability of sources of information on foodstuffs and the declared frequency of using them. In the respondents’ opinion, the most reliable information can be obtained from nutrition consultants, family members, physicians or pharmacists. Furthermore, the analysis of the frequency of use of individual sources of information by the respondents proved that most often they relied on the recommendations from their family members, the information contained in the label and advice offered by their acquaintances.

The research findings indicate that the key action should be to carry out further educational activities aimed at young consumers in order to enable them to execute their rights to fair information and education, in the foodstuffs market, as well as to increase their consumer activity.