Consumer attitudes and perceptions towards chilled ready‑to‑eat foods: a multi‑national study
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Date
2023-03
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Abstract
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 identifcation 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 diferent countries.