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Consumers’ Trust in Different Sources of Information Related to Food Hazards and Their Judgment of Government Performance—A Cross-Sectional Study in Brazil

Trust in institutions is fundamental for the stability and proper functioning of democracies, particularly in matters of high public sensitivity, such as food safety. This study aimed to assess trust levels in different sources of information and respondents’ evaluation of the performance of governm...

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Autores principales: Rembischevski, Peter, Caldas, Eloisa Dutra
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10486621/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37685217
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods12173285
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author Rembischevski, Peter
Caldas, Eloisa Dutra
author_facet Rembischevski, Peter
Caldas, Eloisa Dutra
author_sort Rembischevski, Peter
collection PubMed
description Trust in institutions is fundamental for the stability and proper functioning of democracies, particularly in matters of high public sensitivity, such as food safety. This study aimed to assess trust levels in different sources of information and respondents’ evaluation of the performance of government agencies responsible for controlling food-related hazards. Individuals interviewed in three environments (hospitals/clinics, supermarkets, universities, N = 1000) answered a face-to-face questionnaire in the Federal District of Brazil, and another population (health surveillance employees at the municipal, state and federal levels; N = 1017) answered the questionnaire online. About 60% of the population interviewed considered government performance to be low/very low. Scientists/universities, medical doctors (MD)/health professionals, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) were judged to be the most reliable sources of information on food hazards, while the food industry, supermarkets and social media inspired the lowest trust. Individuals from the hospitals/clinics group had significantly higher trust in MD/health professionals, media and websites than the two other Federal District groups. In general, income and education were the most predictive factors for the results, being negatively associated with assessment of government performance and trust in most information sources. In the Federal District, there was a negative association between trust levels in the government and worry about pesticides and genetically modified food, but a positive association between trust in NGOs and worry on these hazards. The results point to the need for the implementation of more effective communication strategies by institutions in which the population has low trust levels, such as government and food companies.
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spelling pubmed-104866212023-09-09 Consumers’ Trust in Different Sources of Information Related to Food Hazards and Their Judgment of Government Performance—A Cross-Sectional Study in Brazil Rembischevski, Peter Caldas, Eloisa Dutra Foods Article Trust in institutions is fundamental for the stability and proper functioning of democracies, particularly in matters of high public sensitivity, such as food safety. This study aimed to assess trust levels in different sources of information and respondents’ evaluation of the performance of government agencies responsible for controlling food-related hazards. Individuals interviewed in three environments (hospitals/clinics, supermarkets, universities, N = 1000) answered a face-to-face questionnaire in the Federal District of Brazil, and another population (health surveillance employees at the municipal, state and federal levels; N = 1017) answered the questionnaire online. About 60% of the population interviewed considered government performance to be low/very low. Scientists/universities, medical doctors (MD)/health professionals, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) were judged to be the most reliable sources of information on food hazards, while the food industry, supermarkets and social media inspired the lowest trust. Individuals from the hospitals/clinics group had significantly higher trust in MD/health professionals, media and websites than the two other Federal District groups. In general, income and education were the most predictive factors for the results, being negatively associated with assessment of government performance and trust in most information sources. In the Federal District, there was a negative association between trust levels in the government and worry about pesticides and genetically modified food, but a positive association between trust in NGOs and worry on these hazards. The results point to the need for the implementation of more effective communication strategies by institutions in which the population has low trust levels, such as government and food companies. MDPI 2023-09-01 /pmc/articles/PMC10486621/ /pubmed/37685217 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods12173285 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Rembischevski, Peter
Caldas, Eloisa Dutra
Consumers’ Trust in Different Sources of Information Related to Food Hazards and Their Judgment of Government Performance—A Cross-Sectional Study in Brazil
title Consumers’ Trust in Different Sources of Information Related to Food Hazards and Their Judgment of Government Performance—A Cross-Sectional Study in Brazil
title_full Consumers’ Trust in Different Sources of Information Related to Food Hazards and Their Judgment of Government Performance—A Cross-Sectional Study in Brazil
title_fullStr Consumers’ Trust in Different Sources of Information Related to Food Hazards and Their Judgment of Government Performance—A Cross-Sectional Study in Brazil
title_full_unstemmed Consumers’ Trust in Different Sources of Information Related to Food Hazards and Their Judgment of Government Performance—A Cross-Sectional Study in Brazil
title_short Consumers’ Trust in Different Sources of Information Related to Food Hazards and Their Judgment of Government Performance—A Cross-Sectional Study in Brazil
title_sort consumers’ trust in different sources of information related to food hazards and their judgment of government performance—a cross-sectional study in brazil
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10486621/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37685217
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods12173285
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