Consumers frequently underestimate risks of acquiring foodborne illness due to food consumed and prepared at home. While they may be aware of recommended food safety practices, this knowledge does not always correlate with adoption. Psychosocial factors (e.g., self-efficacy, subjective norms) may be important predictors of consumers’ safe food handling. In addition, due to unique characteristics, some marginalized populations require targeted approaches to achieve the behavior change. Theories of behavior change (Theory of Planned Behavior, Health Belief Model, and Stages of Change Transtheoretical Model) provide structured and evidence-based frameworks for describing different psychosocial factors influencing behaviors.

This symposium will provide attendees with understanding of how psychosocial constructs and behavior-change theories can guide the development of effective evidence-based, targeted educational interventions to improve consumer food safety. The first presentation will describe a systematic review and meta-analysis of research studies investigating the psychosocial determinants of consumer safe food handling. The results will indicate which constructs, rooted in different behavior-change theories, are most consistently associated with behaviors, including which factors contribute to differences in findings across studies. The second presentation will provide an international perspective on the methods and measures used in consumer research. Social desirability biases and the Hawthorne effect will be explored. The relationships between consumer food safety knowledge, attitudes, and self-reported and observed behavior will be explored; and the microbial contamination outcomes of behaviors obtained using an innovative model domestic kitchen will be presented. The third presentation will discuss factors affecting behaviors in developing countries. Self-reported and observed practices among low-income mothers/caregivers of children 6–24 months receiving nutritional interventions in Tanzania and the strategies to improve food safety of homemade baby foods will be presented. Domestically, behaviors in food-insecure (low availability and accessibility of food) cancer patients and approaches to address the high food safety risk coping mechanisms will be discussed.

Presentations