Investigating specific concerns about different food hazards

The increase in public concern regarding food hazards and decline in public trust in food risk regulators suggests that there is a need to identify the actual concerns held by the public regarding specific food hazards in order to develop effective risk communication. In this paper we report the findings of semi-structured interviews, using the laddering technique, that aimed to identify the concerns held by the public with regard to five specific food hazards (BSE, genetic modification of food, high fat diets, pesticide residues in food and Salmonella food poisoning). It was found that most of the identified characteristics and concerns were unique to specific food hazards, though some were shared. The findings were supported in a validation study using a more representative sample of the public. The discussion argues that risk messages addressing these specific concerns will be more relevant to the public than general messages, which may lead to more effective risk communication.

[1]  J. Gutman.  A Means-End Chain Model Based on Consumer Categorization Processes , 1982 .

[2]  Trevor Kletz.  Risk ‐ two views: the public’s and the experts’ , 1996 .

[3]  T. J. Reynolds,et al.  Laddering theory, method, analysis, and interpretation. , 2001 .

[4]  R. Shepherd,et al.  The influence of realistic product exposure on attitudes towards genetic engineering of food , 1996 .

[5]  James Flynn,et al.  Decidedly Different: Expert and Public Views of Risks from a Radioactive Waste Repository , 1993 .

[6]  Paul Slovic,et al.  Perceived risk, trust, and democracy , 1993 .

[7]  G. Rowe,et al.  Public perceptions of everyday food hazards: a psychometric study. , 1996, Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis.

[8]  P. Slovic,et al.  A psychological study of the inverse relationship between perceived risk and perceived benefit. , 1994, Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis.

[9]  R Shepherd,et al.  Public perceptions of the potential hazards associated with food production and food consumption: an empirical study. , 1994, Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis.

[10]  Paul Slovic,et al.  Perception of risk: Reflections on the psychometric paradigm , 1992 .

[11]  Ordinal relationships between constructs , 1995 .

[12]  P. Slovic,et al.  Taxonomic Analysis of Perceived Risk: Modeling Individual and Group Perceptions Within Homogeneous Hazard Domains , 1988 .

[13]  Richard Shepherd,et al.  Public Concerns in the United Kingdom about General and Specific Applications of Genetic Engineering: Risk, Benefit, and Ethics , 1997, Science, technology & human values.

[14]  Jonas,et al.  Functional foods: Consumer perceptions in Denmark and England , 1998 .

[15]  B. Soby,et al.  Managing food-related risks: integrating public and scientific judgements , 1994 .

[16]  Gerry Griffin.  Talking straight: The benefits to industry of communicating advances in food science and diet philosophy , 1993 .

[17]  Ortwin Renn,et al.  Incorporating Structural Models into Research on the Social Amplification of Risk: Implications for Theory Construction and Decision Making , 1993 .

[18]  Beliefs about food supply safety: a study of cooperative extension clientele. , 1990, Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

[19]  G. Rowe,et al.  Public Participation Methods: A Framework for Evaluation , 2000 .

[20]  Barbara Adam.  Industrial Food for Thought: Timescapes of Risk , 1999 .

[21]  R. Shepherd,et al.  The influence of initial attitudes on responses to communication about genetic engineering in food production , 1998 .

[22]  A. Woodside,et al.  Personal Values and Consumer Psychology , 1984 .

[23]  G. D. Ingenthron.  Public communications : genetically improved food crops , 1991 .

[24]  Daniel J. Fiorino.  Citizen Participation and Environmental Risk: A Survey of Institutional Mechanisms , 1990 .

[25]  Benjamin Senauer.  Consumer food safety concerns , 1992 .

[26]  P Slovic,et al.  Perception of risk from automobile safety defects. , 1987, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[27]  L. Frewer,et al.  RISK PERCEPTION, SOCIAL TRUST, AND PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN STRATEGIC DECISION MAKING : IMPLICATIONS FOR EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES , 1999 .

[28]  Branden B. Johnson,et al.  Exploring dimensionality in the origins of hazard-related trust , 1999 .

[29]  L. Bredahl,et al.  Consumers» Cognitions With Regard to Genetically Modified Foods. Results of a Qualitative Study in Four Countries , 1999, Appetite.