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Assessing Knowledge and Use Practices of Plastic Food Packaging among Young Adults in South Africa: Concerns about Chemicals and Health

Chemicals associated with health problems can migrate from packaging into food matrices. Therefore, consumers need to be aware of health concerns associated with incorrectly used plastic food packaging. However, little is known about consumers’ knowledge and their plastics usage practices. This stud...

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Autores principales: Du Preez, Magdi, Van der Merwe, Daleen, Wyma, Louise, Ellis, Susanna Maria
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8535462/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34682322
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182010576
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author Du Preez, Magdi
Van der Merwe, Daleen
Wyma, Louise
Ellis, Susanna Maria
author_facet Du Preez, Magdi
Van der Merwe, Daleen
Wyma, Louise
Ellis, Susanna Maria
author_sort Du Preez, Magdi
collection PubMed
description Chemicals associated with health problems can migrate from packaging into food matrices. Therefore, consumers need to be aware of health concerns associated with incorrectly used plastic food packaging. However, little is known about consumers’ knowledge and their plastics usage practices. This study assessed this knowledge and practices among young South African adult consumers. Our online survey of 293 participants focused on their objective (actual) and subjective (self-perceived) knowledge about plastic food packaging care and safety, their utilization practices, and their sources of information about safe use of plastics. Participants’ utilization practices showed broad misuse. Their subjective knowledge about the correct use of plastic packaging was in most respects contradicted by their limited objective knowledge. We found that plastic identification codes on packaging largely failed in their informative purpose; instead, participants mainly consulted informal information sources about plastics. The knowledge gaps, unsafe plastic use practices, and information source deficiencies identified here can help to guide future improvements. We call for consumer education, across all demographics, about plastic utilization practices and associated health concerns about plastic chemicals. We also highlight the need for the government, food and plastics industries to join forces in ensuring that consumers are informed about safe plastic packaging usage.
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spelling pubmed-85354622021-10-23 Assessing Knowledge and Use Practices of Plastic Food Packaging among Young Adults in South Africa: Concerns about Chemicals and Health Du Preez, Magdi Van der Merwe, Daleen Wyma, Louise Ellis, Susanna Maria Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Chemicals associated with health problems can migrate from packaging into food matrices. Therefore, consumers need to be aware of health concerns associated with incorrectly used plastic food packaging. However, little is known about consumers’ knowledge and their plastics usage practices. This study assessed this knowledge and practices among young South African adult consumers. Our online survey of 293 participants focused on their objective (actual) and subjective (self-perceived) knowledge about plastic food packaging care and safety, their utilization practices, and their sources of information about safe use of plastics. Participants’ utilization practices showed broad misuse. Their subjective knowledge about the correct use of plastic packaging was in most respects contradicted by their limited objective knowledge. We found that plastic identification codes on packaging largely failed in their informative purpose; instead, participants mainly consulted informal information sources about plastics. The knowledge gaps, unsafe plastic use practices, and information source deficiencies identified here can help to guide future improvements. We call for consumer education, across all demographics, about plastic utilization practices and associated health concerns about plastic chemicals. We also highlight the need for the government, food and plastics industries to join forces in ensuring that consumers are informed about safe plastic packaging usage. MDPI 2021-10-09 /pmc/articles/PMC8535462/ /pubmed/34682322 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182010576 Text en © 2021 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
Du Preez, Magdi
Van der Merwe, Daleen
Wyma, Louise
Ellis, Susanna Maria
Assessing Knowledge and Use Practices of Plastic Food Packaging among Young Adults in South Africa: Concerns about Chemicals and Health
title Assessing Knowledge and Use Practices of Plastic Food Packaging among Young Adults in South Africa: Concerns about Chemicals and Health
title_full Assessing Knowledge and Use Practices of Plastic Food Packaging among Young Adults in South Africa: Concerns about Chemicals and Health
title_fullStr Assessing Knowledge and Use Practices of Plastic Food Packaging among Young Adults in South Africa: Concerns about Chemicals and Health
title_full_unstemmed Assessing Knowledge and Use Practices of Plastic Food Packaging among Young Adults in South Africa: Concerns about Chemicals and Health
title_short Assessing Knowledge and Use Practices of Plastic Food Packaging among Young Adults in South Africa: Concerns about Chemicals and Health
title_sort assessing knowledge and use practices of plastic food packaging among young adults in south africa: concerns about chemicals and health
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8535462/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34682322
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182010576
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