Malays. Appl. Biol. (2017) 46(3): 131–141
COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CONSUMERS’ KNOWLEDGE AND
ATTITUDES TOWARDS FOOD SAFETY AND PURCHASE
INTENTION OF NIGHT MARKET FOODS CONTAINING
POULTRY IN LOW AND HIGH FOOD POISONING
CASES STATES
LIEONG SOOK THENG1, SITI AISYAH BINTI MOHAMMED ADNAN1,
NORMARDIANA MOHAMMAD JAAFAR1, SITI NUR’AFIFAH JAAFAR1*
and NORAINY MAHYUDIN2
1Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Nerus, Malaysia
2Universiti Putra Malaysia, Jalan UPM, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
*Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Accepted 18 August 2017, Published online 4 October 2017
ABSTRACT
This study was conducted to compare the level of consumers’ knowledge and attitude towards food safety as well as consumers’ intention to purchase night market food precisely food containing poultry based on food hygiene practice of food handlers in two different states i.e. Selangor and Kuala Lumpur. Selangor represents a state with high food poisoning cases while Kuala Lumpur has low food poisoning cases. Two hundred night market consumers for each sampling location were approached. Data was statistically analyzed using SPSS program version 20.0. Generally, respondents’ knowledge of food safety score was significantly different for consumers in Kuala Lumpur (M=14.37, SD=3.75) and Selangor (M=15.10, SD=3.36), (t=2.107, df=429) at p<0.05. Analysis also showed that there were significant differences in the attitude score among consumers in Kuala Lumpur (M=4.71, SD=0.39) and Selangor (M=4.48, SD=0.28), (t=7.085, df=414) at p<0.05. Results revealed that consumers’ intention to purchase night market food in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur are statistically different depending on food handlers’ practices (e.g. tasting food using fingers and hand palm, wear nail polish, touch cooked food with bare hands and etc.) This empirical study served status of consumers’ knowledge, attitude and intention to purchase regarding food safety which could be applied to implement repeated food safety education programs to improve quality of life in local communities.
Key words: Food safety, knowledge, attitude, hygiene practice of food handlers
