A Study on the Perception of and Concern for Food Safety among Urban Housewives

Abstract

We investigated consumer perception of and concern for food safety. The subjects of this study were 275 urban housewives aged more than 20years. The results showed that vegetables and fruit showed the highest purchase frequency of 29.2%, and meat was the highest with 17.2% in the food which feel concerned about safety. Respondents observed that 'domestic food was safer than imported food' (3.92 on a 5 point scale) and 'I always feel concerned about food safety' (3.37). The study also showed that respondents were aware of environmental hormones (3.57), natural toxins (3.51), mad cow disease (3.48), and avian influenza (3.43), in that order. Finally, respondents were deeply concerned about mad cow disease (4.43), heavy metals in food (4.05), environmental hormones (4.02), food poisoning bacteria (3.96), avian influenza (3.87), agrichemical residues (3.86), and food additives (3.84), in that order.