Author(s):
Smigic, Nada ; Ozilgen, Sibel ; Gómez-López, Vicente M. ; Osés, Sandra María ; Miloradovic, Zorana ; Aleksic, Biljana ; Miocinovic, Jelena ; Smole Možina, Sonja ; Kunčič, Ajda ; Guiné, Raquel ; Goncalves, J. C. ; Trafialek, Joanna ; Czarniecka-Skubina, Ewa ; Goel, Gunjan ; Blazic, Marijana ; Herljevic, Dora ; Nikolić, Aleksandra ; Mujčinović, Alen ; Djekic, Ilija
Date: 2023
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.19/7806
Origin: Repositório Científico do Instituto Politécnico de Viseu
Subject(s): Consumers’ perception; Food safety; Chilled ready-to-eat foods; Food handling
Description
Understanding consumers’ behavior and their handling of high-risk foods at home is essential for reducing the number of foodborne illnesses. This study shows the results of a cross-national analysis of consumers’ perception from nine countries, and the identification of customers’ clusters and its characteristics in order to understand customers’ behavior, and to build safe chilled ready-to-eat (RTE) foods prevention strategies. The cluster analysis resulted in two clusters: (1) “Precautious consumers” characterized by the orientation towards pre-packed RTE foods, with consumers mainly coming from Bosnia and Herzegovina, India, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Turkey. Their attitudes and self-reported practices may be categorized as less risky in terms of food-borne illnesses connected with the consumption of RTE foods; (2) “Unconcerned consumers” preferred cutting and slicing RTE foods freshly at the point of purchase, usually sold at the delicatessen department in a supermarket or at open markets. Those consumers mostly came from Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia and their attitudes and self-reported practices were riskier. These results allow a better understating of what characterizes consumers of RTE foods in different countries.
