The Importance Placed on the Monitoring of Food Safety and Quality by Australian Consumers

Laws

Julie Henderson³  Loreen Mamerow¹  Anne W. Taylor²  Paul R. Ward¹  Samantha B. Meyer¹ 

[1]Discipline of Public Health, Flinders University

[2] Box 2100, Adelaide 5001, Australia

[3] E-Mails:

[4]Population Research and Outcome Studies, The University of Adelaide

[5] Adelaide 5005, Australia

[6] E-Mail:

[7]School of Nursing & Midwifery, Flinders University

[8] Box 2100, Adelaide 5001, Australia

关键词: food safety;    food regulation;    survey;    public health;    Australia;   

DOI  :  10.3390/laws2020099

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) estimates that Australians experience 5.4 million incidents of food poisoning each year, making food safety a significant public health issue. This paper describes and analyses the importance placed by Australians on the role of the agencies and actors that regulate the safety and quality of food. A computer assisted telephone interviewing survey addressing aspect of food safety was administrated to a random sample of 1,109 participants across all Australian states (response rate 41.2%). Only 44.6% of participants viewed the monitoring of food safety and quality as ‘Very important’, with greatest significance placed upon personal monitoring (76.0%) and the role of the Federal government (51.1%). The media (22.5%) and local council (32.4%) were viewed as the least important agents. When data were combined to create an index of general monitoring, participants under 30; respondents in outer regional areas; and men identified food monitoring as less important; while respondents from households with 5 or more members viewed food monitoring as more important than respondents from smaller households.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.