UNESCO – EOLSS SAMPLE CHAPTERS MEDICAL SCIENCES - Vol.II -Consumer Perceptions of Food Safety - Lynn Frewer, Janneke de Jonge and Ellen van Kleef ©Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS) CONSUMER PERCEPTIONS OF FOOD SAFETY Lynn Frewer, Janneke de Jonge and Ellen van Kleef Wageningen University, The Netherlands Keywords: risk, benefit, trust, confidence, individual differences, risk uncertainty, risk variability, affect, risk management, risk communication. Contents 1. Introduction 2. Consumer perceptions of risk 3. Risk and benefit 3.1. Risk and Benefit Associated with New Food Technologies 3.2. The Negative Correlation Between Perceived Risk and Benefit 3.3. Habit 3.4. Risk Uncertainty and Variability 4. Trust in food and actors in the food chain 5. Individual differences 6. Conclusion Glossary Bibliography Biographical Sketches Summary Understanding consumer responses to various food safety issues is of crucial importance if effective food safety policy and risk communication are to be developed and implemented. This chapter presents an overview of research into consumer perceptions of food safety, and the role of consumer risk psychology in determining risk-related behaviors and best practice in risk communication. Many empirical investigations of consumer perceptions about the safety of food have focused on perceived risk associated with food, food-related hazards, and food technologies. In addition, consumer trust in different actors and institutions responsible for guaranteeing food safety, as well as trust in the information provided by different information sources that communicate about food-related risks, is considered to be important for consumer confidence in the safety of food, as well as consumer evaluation of the efficacy of food risk management practices. In particular, as food chains become global, there is a need to understand cross-cultural differences in consumer risk perceptions and trust in food, and how these influence consumer behaviors. It has become increasingly evident that consumers are making decisions about the acceptability of specific foods and production technologies based on a complex interaction of perceptions of risk and benefit associated with specific food choices. Theoretical advances in the area of social psychology are relevant to the development of effective risk-benefit communication strategies that address communication of risk under conditions of uncertainty, as well as communication specifically targeted at vulnerable groups within the population. Research is urgently needed to further our understanding of the fundamental