Alan S. Levy Ph.D.
Senior Scientist
FDA/CFSAN
Washington, DC 20202

H: Improvements in reported food safety practices must be due to changes in consumer knowledge, attitudes, or experience. But which ones?

It might help design effective food safety education, if we could identify the cognitive antecedents of safe behavior.

• 1998 FDA/USDA Food Safety Survey data.
• 2SLS regression with instrumental variables
• Food safety practices = B’s(cognitive + demographic variables) with personal food preferences (I.e., prepare raw fish) as instrument.

Summary measures of individual’s food safety practices:

• Handling--based on 3 foods, 7 Qs
• Consumption--based on 14 foods
• Cooling--based on 2 foods, 4 Qs

Large set of cognitive measures

• Prior experience variables
• Knowledge variables
• Risk perceptions
• Information search measures

• Controlled for demographics
• Controlled for self-selection bias
• Controlled for other cognitive variables
• Direct effects of cognitive variables that remain identify likely antecedents of ‘good’ food safety behavior.

• If you forgot to wash your hands before you begin cooking.
• If vegetables you eat raw happen to touch raw meat or chicken.
• If you eat meat or chicken that is not thoroughly cooked.
• If you leave cooked food out of the refrigerator for more than 2 hours.

• Because of contamination of food by germs.
• Because of the way food is handled in their homes.
• Because of the way food is handled in restaurants.
• Do you think there has been more or less sickness from food over the past 5 years.

Characteristics associated with increased personal behavior risk perception

• Women
• Middle age, (26-60)
• Less education
• No food preparation experience
• Recent illness experience
• More likely to look for food safety information
• Less knowledge about how to kill food pathogens

• Consumers practice safe food behavior when they think about it.
• They think about it when they perceive a risk.
• They may not perceive a risk if they are confident they are controlling their risks.
• Consumers may have mistaken ideas about which practices are effective at reducing risks.

• Effective education challenges undue complacency.
• Practice-specific information is likely to work better than general information.
• Ideal message: Do you do it [specific practice] this way [practice specific information]?

Closing: Photo of beach; Thinking Globally, Working Locally; A Conference on Food Safety Education