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Special Issue "Food Safety Knowledge and Eating Behavior of Consumers, with a Particular Focus on Adolescents"

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A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Health Behavior, Chronic Disease and Health Promotion".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2024 | Viewed by 5097

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Marzena Tomaszewska
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Guest Editor

Department of Food Gastronomy and Food Hygiene, Institute of Human Nutrition Sciences, Warsaw University of Life Sciences–SGGW, 159C Nowoursynowska St., 02-776 Warsaw, Poland
Interests: food safety and food quality; food hygiene; food waste management; designing a foodservice establishments
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Beata Bilska

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Guest Editor

Department of Food Gastronomy and Food Hygiene, Institute of Human Nutrition Sciences, Warsaw University of Life Sciences – SGGW, 02-776 Warsaw, Poland
Interests: food safety; food quality; food security; food waste management; consumer behavior
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Eating behavior is a broad term that encompasses areas such as food choice, feeding practices, and food preparation. Inappropriate eating behavior can be related to such problems as obesity, eating disorders, and food-borne disease outbreaks.

Although consumer awareness of food safety is still growing, there are some areas of unsatisfactory knowledge regarding food safety and inappropriate consumer practices.

Consumers are an important link in the food safety chain. A large proportion of food-borne illness originates at home. In the European Union member states, over one-third of reported food-borne outbreaks of diseases for which there is strong evidence originated in households. Young people are an especially important group of consumers. Firstly, this is because they are the future of society. Children of school age can learn specific health-promoting behavior, even if they do not fully understand the connections between illness and their behaviors. Many good habits related to personal hygiene and the principles of food preparation and storage can be developed in this period. The second reason why it is important to target children is that young children are at higher risk of developing food-borne illness than adults due to their underdeveloped immune system, which has a limited ability to fight infections. Additionally, young people have limited control of their food safety risk because their meals are usually prepared by adults.

In this Special Issue, we aim to focus on the current state of knowledge about food safety and eating behavior in different populations, especially among young people, and its relations to human health. Understanding the behavior of young consumers and the gaps in the education process in relation to food safety can lead to the development of appropriate educational programs that will help to combat outbreaks of food poisoning among children both now and in their adult lives. The food safety knowledge and eating behavior of consumers should be considered in the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic as well as with regard to other aspects—for example, sustainable development and Agenda 2030 (goal 3).

Dr. Marzena Tomaszewska
Dr. Beata Bilska
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

food safety
good hygiene
food-borne illness
eating behavior
consumer behavior
adolescents
educational programs
food spoilage
food safety practice
food safety knowledge
attitudes

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

Open AccessArticle

The Impact of Physical Activity at School on Eating Behaviour and Leisure Time of Early Adolescents

Wojciech Kolanowski

Katarzyna Ługowska

and

Joanna Trafialek

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(24), 16490; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192416490 - 08 Dec 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 945

Abstract

(1) Background: Diet and physical activity (PA) significantly impact health. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of long-term increase in organized PA level at school on the eating behaviour and leisure time of early adolescences in the period from the age of 10 to 12. (2) Methods: Children born in 2007 (n = 278) in groups with a standard (control group) and increased level of organized PA at school (4 and 10 h a week) were subjected to an anonymous follow-up survey. The questionnaire included 22 questions related to the eating behaviour and ways and frequency of leisure time PA. The study was conducted in the same groups in three assessment sessions in September 2017, 2018 and 2019. (3) Results: During the course of the study, it was shown improvement of eating behaviour in the increased PA group whereas decline in the standard PA one. The share of children with good and very good scores of eating behaviour decreased in the standard PA group from 56.89% to 54.54% and increased in the increased PA from 58.06% to 60.29%. In the increased PA group children more frequently than standard PA ate vegetables, fruits, fish, poultry meat, wholemeal bakery products, milk, dairy products and drinking tea without sugar, as well as ate breakfast. The standard PA children more frequently than increased PA ate high sugar and/or fat content food as sweets, savoury snacks and drank fizzy drinks as well as fast foods. The frequency of often undertaken leisure time PA increased in the increased PA group from 67% to 74%, while decreased in the standard PA from 58% to 52%. (4) Conclusions: Increase in organized PA at school beneficially influenced early adolescents’ eating behaviour and frequency of leisure time PA during 2 years observation. It also increased early adolescents’ awareness of healthy diet. Increased PA at school helps shaping healthy lifestyle among early adolescents. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Food Safety Knowledge and Eating Behavior of Consumers, with a Particular Focus on Adolescents)

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Open AccessArticle

The Impact of the Nutritional Knowledge of Polish Students Living Outside the Family Home on Consumer Behavior and Food Waste

Robert Nicewicz

and

Beata Bilska

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(20), 13058; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192013058 - 11 Oct 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1451

Abstract

Food waste remains a major problem for the world and food security. Despite the fact that consumers are significant producers of food waste, little research attention has been paid to young people who are in college and living away from the family home. The present study aimed to assess food waste among college students living away from the family home, taking into account the nutritional knowledge acquired during college. In addition, the goal was to compare how nutritional knowledge affects food waste and consumer behavior in the study group. Descriptive statistics were performed on behaviors with food management at home, as well as shopping planning and self-shopping at the store, for the total respondents, students with nutritional knowledge and students without such knowledge. A chi-square test was performed to show whether the field of study influences the frequency of food throwing away and the appropriate management of excess food. Spearman’s rank correlations were calculated for the frequency of food discarding, the frequency and amount of shopping and the field of study. The results indicate that the field of study determined food discarding and appropriate food management (p < 0.05), while it was found that fermented dairy beverages, fruits and vegetables and bread were the most frequently discarded foods in both study groups (p < 0.05). Students with nutritional knowledge were less likely to throw away food compared to students without nutritional knowledge and were better at managing excess food. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Food Safety Knowledge and Eating Behavior of Consumers, with a Particular Focus on Adolescents)

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Open AccessArticle

The Influence of Selected Food Safety Practices of Consumers on Food Waste Due to Its Spoilage

Marzena Tomaszewska

Beata Bilska

and

Danuta Kołożyn-Krajewska

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(13), 8144; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19138144 - 02 Jul 2022

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 1990

Abstract

Food waste in households is a consequence of the accumulation of improper practices employed by consumers when dealing with food. The survey estimated the impact of practices of Polish respondents, in the context of selected food safety and hygiene issues, on throwing away food due to spoilage. The survey was conducted in 2019, in a random quota-based, nationwide sample of 1115 respondents 18 years old and older. Synthetic indicators (SI) were created to assess the knowledge and practices of Polish adult respondents concerning selected areas of food management and the frequency of throwing food away. Most food products were not thrown away at all or were thrown away occasionally. Regression analysis revealed that the frequency of throwing food away was to the greatest extent related to food spoilage (β = 0.223). Among the five areas of Polish respondents’ practices covered by the analysis, the most conducive to wasting food due to spoilage were improper proceedings with food after bringing it home (β = 0.135; p = 0.000), a failure to ensure proper food storage conditions (β = 0.066; p = 0.030), or inappropriate proceedings with uneaten meals, excluding the food plate (β = 0.066; p = 0.029). To reduce food waste in Polish households, drawing the attention of consumers to the conditions of food storage at home seems appropriate. It is also vital to convince them to use freezing of uneaten food as an effective method of extending the life of food products. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Food Safety Knowledge and Eating Behavior of Consumers, with a Particular Focus on Adolescents)

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