Published 2022

Read in Norwegian

Publication details

Journal : Food Control , vol. 135 , p. 1–10 , 2022

International Standard Numbers :
Printed : 0956-7135
Electronic : 1873-7129

Publication type : Academic article

Contributors : Nafziger, Julia; Veflen, Nina

Research areas

Shelf life and food safety

Consumer insight

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Kjetil Aune
Chief Librarian
kjetil.aune@nofima.no

Summary

We design a game-based online intervention to foster awareness of food safety and risk-reducing behavior among consumers. 1087 participants, aged 20–50 years, and additional 886 participants, aged up to 89 years, from the UK and Norway were assigned to (i) a control condition with pre- and post-survey measures of food safety beliefs and behaviors with a one-week spacing, or (ii) in addition exposed to a brief information video, or (iii) in addition played an online game. Both intervention types improved food safety beliefs to a similar extent relative to control. But only the game interventions significantly improved self-reported food safety behavior, suggesting that providing information to consumers often is not sufficient to change routinized behavior. The novel insight of our study is that repeatedly applying correct behavior in the virtual environment of the online game spills over to real-world behavior. Importantly, treatment effects are not concentrated on young people, but are consistent across age groups.

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