Stakeholders' perceptions, attitudes and practices towards risk prevention in the food chain

Abstract

An online survey was conducted to describe stakeholders' perceptions, attitudes and practices towards risk prevention in the food chain and to explore if common features could be extracted from different fields of competency or groups of stakeholders. Out of 80 participants, 60% believed that pathogenic microorganisms were the main hazard to prevent. Twenty-four percent perceived climate change as the main risk factor. Seventy-three percent believed that hazards in the food chain are preventable and they often showed a positive attitude towards risk prevention measures. The opinion of 75% of stakeholders was that prevention measures should be compulsory and under the shared responsibility of both food business operators and competent authority. Seventy-five percent of the respondents had recent experience with particular hazards and declared to have undertaken risk reduction measures. Incentives to implement measures were policy obligation and public health consequences whereas barriers were budgetary reasons and doubts about their effectiveness. However, there was not always a complete agreement between the perceived usefulness of risk prevention measures and their effective implementation, and conversely. No significant difference could be observed in the perceptions, attitudes and practices towards risk prevention between neither groups of stakeholders nor their fields of competency. The results are important for improving the risk communication process because the same issues can be emphasized when promoting risk prevention in the food chain regardless of the type of food sectors and the groups of stakeholders.Highlights ► Stakeholders' perceptions, attitudes and practices towards risk prevention in the food chain were described. ► Pathogenic microorganisms were perceived as the main hazard. ► A positive attitude towards risk prevention was observed. ► Attitude and behaviour towards risk prevention were not always consistent. ► Results were homogeneous between stakeholder groups and their fields of competency.

Attitudes and opinions of the abattoir sector toward the control and prevention of microbiological foodborne pathogens

“…More research is needed on incentives of abattoirs to implement preventive measures, taking into account differences between animal species and company size. In this study, the most frequently mentioned incentive was scientific proof (54%), which is similar to the finding of Lupo et al (). Furthermore, Lupo et al () found that the cost–benefit balance is an incentive.…”

“…In this study, the most frequently mentioned incentive was scientific proof (54%), which is similar to the finding of Lupo et al (). Furthermore, Lupo et al () found that the cost–benefit balance is an incentive. In this study, only 16% of the respondents mentioned the importance of economic incentives.…”

“…The majority of respondents (61%) mentioned that abattoirs or the entire sector should be responsible for the implementation of preventive measures, which is similar to the 62% of FBO's found by Lupo et al (). In contrast to the 75% of respondents who believed that competent authorities should be responsible for risk prevention (Lupo et al, ), only 25% of the respondents in this study mentioned governmental bodies. However, poultry abattoirs were significantly more in favor of governmental bodies assuming responsibility.…”

“…Meanwhile, the study by van Wezemael, Verbeke, Kügler, de Barcellos, and Grunert (2010) that focused on beef indicated that abattoirs were ranked by consumers from four EU countries among the distrusted actors in the meat chain with respect to safety, together with meat industries and packaging firms (van Wezemael et al, 2010). A recent study addressing stakeholder's perceptions, attitudes, and practices toward risk prevention in the food chain (Lupo, Wilmart, Van Huffel, Dal Pozzo, & Saegerman, 2016) showed that pathogenic microorganisms were seen as the largest risk that needs to be prevented. However, the participants of the study mainly included scientists and risk managers and only a limited number of FBOs.…”

Assessing the use of animal health platforms: user’s needs, preferences and constraints

“…Most of them were known professional contact points who were previously or at the time involved in animal or human health activities. A snowball sampling strategy was then used (Lupo et al, 2016) where certain first wave respondents were asked to distribute the questionnaire link to other pertinent persons via e-mail. Therefore, the same email was sent by the OIE to country focal points responsible for notifying animal diseases.…”