Paper Title
Food Safety Practices among Chinese in the U.S.
Start Date
7-1-2011 2:30 PM
End Date
7-1-2011 3:15 PM
Track
2. Track 2 - Poster Session
Subject Area
Consumer Behavior
Faculty Member
Seonghee Cho choseo@missouri.edu
Abstract
Improper food handling of Chinese has caused problems that cannot be ignored. Because of great favor on Chinese food and the indispensable role Chinese people play in the U.S., it is thus of our interest to study the knowledge, practices, and attitudes of Chinese population in the U.S. in the aspect of safe food handling. Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Health Belief Model (HBM) have been applied widely in researches of health-related behaviors, but they haven’t been extensively used in empirical studies aiming at understanding people’s beliefs and practices of food safety. Based on TPB and HBM models, nine hypotheses were proposed. An English questionnaire was developed, translated to Chinese and distributed via an Internet survey web site. A total of 102 valid responses were collected. Using a linear regression model, attitude toward behavior and self-efficacy were identified as significant indicators of safe food handling practices.
Keywords
food safety, safe food handling practices, Chinese population in the U.S., Theory of Planned Behavior, Health Belief Model, multiple linear regression
Food Safety Practices among Chinese in the U.S.
Improper food handling of Chinese has caused problems that cannot be ignored. Because of great favor on Chinese food and the indispensable role Chinese people play in the U.S., it is thus of our interest to study the knowledge, practices, and attitudes of Chinese population in the U.S. in the aspect of safe food handling. Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Health Belief Model (HBM) have been applied widely in researches of health-related behaviors, but they haven’t been extensively used in empirical studies aiming at understanding people’s beliefs and practices of food safety. Based on TPB and HBM models, nine hypotheses were proposed. An English questionnaire was developed, translated to Chinese and distributed via an Internet survey web site. A total of 102 valid responses were collected. Using a linear regression model, attitude toward behavior and self-efficacy were identified as significant indicators of safe food handling practices.