How Worried Are You about Food Fraud? A Preliminary Multi-Country Study among Consumers in Selected Sub-Saharan African Countries
Food fraud is an old, recurring, and global threat to public health. It poses a serious threat to food security in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Despite the prevalence of food fraud in SSA, little is known about how food fraud is viewed by consumers. This study aims to provide an overview of consumers’...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-09-01
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| Series: | Foods |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/12/19/3627 |
| _version_ | 1797575929537495040 |
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| author | Jan Mei Soon-Sinclair Samuel Imathiu Adewale Olusegun Obadina Fabrice Fabien Dongho Dongmo Alex Dimitri Tchuenchieu Kamgain Ennet Moholisa Courage Kosi Setsoafia Saba Abel Wilson Walekhwa Henry Hunga Jamal Kussaga |
| author_facet | Jan Mei Soon-Sinclair Samuel Imathiu Adewale Olusegun Obadina Fabrice Fabien Dongho Dongmo Alex Dimitri Tchuenchieu Kamgain Ennet Moholisa Courage Kosi Setsoafia Saba Abel Wilson Walekhwa Henry Hunga Jamal Kussaga |
| author_sort | Jan Mei Soon-Sinclair |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Food fraud is an old, recurring, and global threat to public health. It poses a serious threat to food security in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Despite the prevalence of food fraud in SSA, little is known about how food fraud is viewed by consumers. This study aims to provide an overview of consumers’ concerns about food fraud in SSA. A multi-country survey was conducted in October 2022–31 January 2023, and 838 valid responses were returned. To reduce the large and correlated dataset, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used. Five components were derived from PCA: (i) Staple foods; (ii) Premium food and drink products; (iii) Trust in reliable sources; (iv) Trust in less reliable sources; and (v) Trust in food vendors. The findings revealed Ghanaian (mean rank = 509.47) and Nigerian (mean rank = 454.82) consumers tended to score higher on the measure of food fraud concern suggesting that they were less confident in the safety and quality of the food they consume. Demographic characteristics including age, number of children, personal and family experience of food fraud and PCA components such as ‘Staple foods’, ‘Trust in reliable sources’, and ‘Trust in food vendors’ significantly predicted the model. This is the first preliminary study to provide empirical findings on consumers’ concerns about food fraud in SSA. Practical and policy recommendations for the region are suggested. This includes (i) modelling the AfriFoodinTegrity in West Africa across other major regions such as Central, East, and Southern Africa; (ii) establish a regional sub-Saharan Africa Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (SSA-RASFF) platform; and (iii) food safety and food fraud reports could be incorporated into SSA-RASFF portal for information sharing. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T21:45:16Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f8e2ec2751b94c389c676da321ea6c02 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2304-8158 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T21:45:16Z |
| publishDate | 2023-09-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Foods |
| spelling | doaj.art-f8e2ec2751b94c389c676da321ea6c022023-11-19T14:23:30ZengMDPI AGFoods2304-81582023-09-011219362710.3390/foods12193627How Worried Are You about Food Fraud? A Preliminary Multi-Country Study among Consumers in Selected Sub-Saharan African CountriesJan Mei Soon-Sinclair0Samuel Imathiu1Adewale Olusegun Obadina2Fabrice Fabien Dongho Dongmo3Alex Dimitri Tchuenchieu Kamgain4Ennet Moholisa5Courage Kosi Setsoafia Saba6Abel Wilson Walekhwa7Henry Hunga8Jamal Kussaga9Faculty of Allied-Health and Wellbeing, University of Central Lancashire, Preston PRI 2HE, UKDepartment of Food Science and Technology, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Nairobi 00200, KenyaDepartment of Food Science and Technology, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta P.M.B 2240, NigeriaDepartment of Biochemistry, University of Douala-Cameroon, Douala 24157, CameroonInstitute of Medical Research and Medicinal Plants Studies, Yaoundé 13033, CameroonAgricultural Research Council-Animal Production Institute, Irene 0062, South AfricaDepartment of Microbiology, Faculty of Biosciences, University for Development Studies, Tamale P.O. Box TL 1882, GhanaInfectious Diseases Epidemiology and Modelling Unit, Makerere University, Kampala P.O. Box 22418, UgandaDepartment of Land Resources Conservation, Ministry of Agriculture, Lilongwe P.O. Box 30291, MalawiDepartment of Food Science and Agroprocessing, School of Engineering and Technology, College of Agriculture, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro P.O. Box 3000, TanzaniaFood fraud is an old, recurring, and global threat to public health. It poses a serious threat to food security in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Despite the prevalence of food fraud in SSA, little is known about how food fraud is viewed by consumers. This study aims to provide an overview of consumers’ concerns about food fraud in SSA. A multi-country survey was conducted in October 2022–31 January 2023, and 838 valid responses were returned. To reduce the large and correlated dataset, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used. Five components were derived from PCA: (i) Staple foods; (ii) Premium food and drink products; (iii) Trust in reliable sources; (iv) Trust in less reliable sources; and (v) Trust in food vendors. The findings revealed Ghanaian (mean rank = 509.47) and Nigerian (mean rank = 454.82) consumers tended to score higher on the measure of food fraud concern suggesting that they were less confident in the safety and quality of the food they consume. Demographic characteristics including age, number of children, personal and family experience of food fraud and PCA components such as ‘Staple foods’, ‘Trust in reliable sources’, and ‘Trust in food vendors’ significantly predicted the model. This is the first preliminary study to provide empirical findings on consumers’ concerns about food fraud in SSA. Practical and policy recommendations for the region are suggested. This includes (i) modelling the AfriFoodinTegrity in West Africa across other major regions such as Central, East, and Southern Africa; (ii) establish a regional sub-Saharan Africa Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (SSA-RASFF) platform; and (iii) food safety and food fraud reports could be incorporated into SSA-RASFF portal for information sharing.https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/12/19/3627adulterationfood safetystaple foodssub-Saharan Africatrustvulnerable foods |
| spellingShingle | Jan Mei Soon-Sinclair Samuel Imathiu Adewale Olusegun Obadina Fabrice Fabien Dongho Dongmo Alex Dimitri Tchuenchieu Kamgain Ennet Moholisa Courage Kosi Setsoafia Saba Abel Wilson Walekhwa Henry Hunga Jamal Kussaga How Worried Are You about Food Fraud? A Preliminary Multi-Country Study among Consumers in Selected Sub-Saharan African Countries Foods adulteration food safety staple foods sub-Saharan Africa trust vulnerable foods |
| title | How Worried Are You about Food Fraud? A Preliminary Multi-Country Study among Consumers in Selected Sub-Saharan African Countries |
| title_full | How Worried Are You about Food Fraud? A Preliminary Multi-Country Study among Consumers in Selected Sub-Saharan African Countries |
| title_fullStr | How Worried Are You about Food Fraud? A Preliminary Multi-Country Study among Consumers in Selected Sub-Saharan African Countries |
| title_full_unstemmed | How Worried Are You about Food Fraud? A Preliminary Multi-Country Study among Consumers in Selected Sub-Saharan African Countries |
| title_short | How Worried Are You about Food Fraud? A Preliminary Multi-Country Study among Consumers in Selected Sub-Saharan African Countries |
| title_sort | how worried are you about food fraud a preliminary multi country study among consumers in selected sub saharan african countries |
| topic | adulteration food safety staple foods sub-Saharan Africa trust vulnerable foods |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/12/19/3627 |
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