Aflatoxins and Health Considerations in Consumer Food Choices in Ghana

Abstract Food safety enjoys sustained attention among the scientific community, policymakers, and the general public due to health impacts. However, pursuing appropriate regulations for pervasive food contaminants is a challenging policy issue, particularly for naturally-occurring food toxins such as aflatoxins and other mycotoxins. This paper explores consumer preferences for quality aflatoxin-free peanuts, and how food safety concerns may impact willingness to pay more for safer foods. Incorporating ‘risky’ foods into random utility-maximization framework, we analyze contingent valuation survey data on Ghana. Model and survey results show consumers in Ghana approve of food aflatoxin regulations, and are prepared to pay price premiums as incentives to ensure supply of quality peanuts. Findings reveal that consumers prioritize food safety above prices in market decisions. People prefer introduction of aflatoxin regulations that would guarantee good health; useful information for policy makers in Ghana, Africa, and rest of the developing world.

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Contingent Valuation in Food Policy Analysis: A Case Study of a Pesticide-Residue Risk Reduction

Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics ◽

10.1017/s1074070800028637 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 27 (2) ◽

pp. 613-625 ◽

Cited By ~ 34

Author(s):

Jean C. Buzby ◽

Richard C. Ready ◽

Jerry R. Skees

Keyword(s):

Food Safety ◽

Contingent Valuation ◽

Food Policy ◽

Cost Benefit Analysis ◽

Policy Issue ◽

Cost Benefit ◽

Benefit Analysis ◽

Payment Card ◽

Contingent Valuation Survey

AbstractThis study demonstrates how contingent valuation techniques can be used in a cost-benefit analysis of a food safety policy issue. The analysis focuses on banning a specific postharvest pesticide used in fresh grapefruit packinghouses. Benefits of the ban are measured using consumers' aggregated willingness to pay (WTP) for safer grapefruit. A national contingent valuation survey used the payment card method to obtain WTP data. Costs of the ban stem predominantly from increased postharvest losses and were estimated using a model of the market for Florida grapefruit. Results indicate that benefits of the ban outweigh costs.

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Food Heritage Makes a Difference: The Importance of Cultural Knowledge for Improving Education for Sustainable Food Choices

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su12041509 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (4) ◽

pp. 1509 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Suzanne Kapelari ◽

Georgios Alexopoulos ◽

Theano Moussouri ◽

Konstantin J. Sagmeister ◽

Florian Stampfer

Keyword(s):

Food Security ◽

Consumer Preferences ◽

Food Preferences ◽

Food Choices ◽

Cultural Knowledge ◽

Sustainable Food ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Horizon 2020 ◽

Security Issues ◽

The Impact

This paper presents findings from a study carried out as part of BigPicnic, a European Commission’s Horizon 2020 project. BigPicnic brought together members of the public, scientists, policy-makers and industry representatives to develop exhibitions and science cafés. Across 12 European and one Ugandan botanic gardens participating in the study, we surveyed 1189 respondents on factors and motives affecting their food choices. The study highlights the importance that cultural knowledge holds for understanding food choices and consumer preferences. The findings of this study are discussed in the wider context of food security issues related to sustainable food choice, and the role of food as a form of cultural heritage. Specifically, the findings underline the importance of the impact of food preferences and choices on achieving sustainability, but also indicate that heritage is a key parameter that has to be more explicitly considered in definitions of food security and relevant policies on a European and global level.

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EU Labor Market Inequalities and Sustainable Development Goals

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13052675 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (5) ◽

pp. 2675

Author(s):

Elena Jianu ◽

Ramona Pîrvu ◽

Gheorghe Axinte ◽

Ovidiu Toma ◽

Andrei Valentin Cojocaru ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Labor Market ◽

Policy Issue ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Public Policy Issue ◽

Development Goals ◽

To Come ◽

Business Practitioners ◽

The Eu

Reducing inequalities for EU citizens and promoting upward convergence is one of the priorities on the agenda of the European Commission and, certainly, inequality will be a very important public policy issue for years to come. Through this research we aim to investigate EU labor market inequalities, reflected by the specific indicators proposed for Goal 8 assumed by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, based on cluster analysis for all the 27 Member States. The research results showed encouraging results from the perspective of convergence in the EU labor market, but also revealed a number of analyzed variable effects that manifested regional inequalities that were generated in the medium and long term. Based on the observations made, we want to provide information for policy-makers, business practitioners, and academics so as to constitute solid ground for identifying good practices and proposing to implement policies aimed at reducing existing inequalities and supporting sustainable development.

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Molecularly Imprinted Polymers Combined with Electrochemical Sensors for Food Contaminants Analysis

Molecules ◽

10.3390/molecules26154607 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 26 (15) ◽

pp. 4607

Author(s):

Dounia Elfadil ◽

Abderrahman Lamaoui ◽

Flavio Della Pelle ◽

Aziz Amine ◽

Dario Compagnone

Keyword(s):

Food Safety ◽

Molecularly Imprinted Polymers ◽

Electrochemical Sensors ◽

Low Cost ◽

Electrochemical Analysis ◽

Ease Of Use ◽

Electrochemical Sensing ◽

Food Contaminants ◽

Molecularly Imprinted ◽

Imprinted Polymers

Detection of relevant contaminants using screening approaches is a key issue to ensure food safety and respect for the regulatory limits established. Electrochemical sensors present several advantages such as rapidity; ease of use; possibility of on-site analysis and low cost. The lack of selectivity for electrochemical sensors working in complex samples as food may be overcome by coupling them with molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs). MIPs are synthetic materials that mimic biological receptors and are produced by the polymerization of functional monomers in presence of a target analyte. This paper critically reviews and discusses the recent progress in MIP-based electrochemical sensors for food safety. A brief introduction on MIPs and electrochemical sensors is given; followed by a discussion of the recent achievements for various MIPs-based electrochemical sensors for food contaminants analysis. Both electropolymerization and chemical synthesis of MIP-based electrochemical sensing are discussed as well as the relevant applications of MIPs used in sample preparation and then coupled to electrochemical analysis. Future perspectives and challenges have been eventually given.

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A risk–benefit analysis approach to seafood intake to determine optimal consumption

British Journal Of Nutrition ◽

10.1017/s0007114511005010 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 107 (12) ◽

pp. 1812-1822 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

Véronique Sirot ◽

Jean-Charles Leblanc ◽

Irène Margaritis

Keyword(s):

Arsenic Exposure ◽

Inorganic Arsenic ◽

Hierarchical Cluster ◽

Good Health ◽

Benefit Analysis ◽

Food Contaminants ◽

Public Health Perspective ◽

Contaminant Exposure ◽

Consumption Level ◽

Risk Benefit Analysis

Seafood provides n-3 long-chain PUFA (n-3 LC-PUFA), vitamins and minerals, which are essential to maintain good health. Moreover, seafood is a source of contaminants such as methylmercury, arsenic and persistent organic pollutants that may affect health. The aim of the present study was to determine in what quantities seafood consumption would provide nutritional benefits, while minimising the risks linked to food contaminants. Seafood was grouped into clusters using a hierarchical cluster analysis. Those nutrients and contaminants were selected for which it is known that seafood is a major source. The risk–benefit analysis consisted in using an optimisation model with constraints to calculate optimum seafood cluster consumption levels. The goal was to optimise nutrient intakes as well as to limit contaminant exposure with the condition being to attain recommended nutritional intakes without exceeding tolerable upper intakes for contaminants and nutrients, while taking into account background intakes. An optimum consumption level was calculated for adults that minimises inorganic arsenic exposure and increases vitamin D intake in the general population. This consumption level guarantees that the consumer reaches the recommended intake for n-3 LC-PUFA, Se and I, while remaining below the tolerable upper intakes for methylmercury, Cd, dioxins, polychlorobiphenyls, Zn, Ca and Cu. This consumption level, which is approximately 200 g/week of certain fatty fish species and approximately 50 g/week of lean fish, molluscs and crustaceans, has to be considered in order to determine food consumption recommendations in a public health perspective.

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Consumer Attitudes toward the Use of Gene Technology in Breakfast Products: Comparison between College Students from the U.S. and China

Journal of Food Research ◽

10.5539/jfr.v4n6p143 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 4 (6) ◽

pp. 143 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Nanying Wang ◽

Jack E. Houston ◽

Gregory Colson ◽

Zimin Liu

Keyword(s):

College Students ◽

Consumer Preferences ◽

Genetically Modified ◽

Marketing Strategies ◽

Chinese Market ◽

Developed Country ◽

Information Campaigns ◽

Gm Foods ◽

Survey Results ◽

The U.S

Second-generation Genetically Modified (GM) crops are associated with consumer-oriented benefits such as improvement of nutritional quality. Given such an evolving market environment, this paper presents differences in consumer preferences and valuations for genetically modified breakfast grain products. The perception of consumers from a developing country, China, is discussed and compared to attitudes in a developed country, the U.S. The survey results reveal that there are notable differences in the attitude and perception of college students across these two countries. Purchase intent for GM foods was low, unless a benefit was promised, and some modifications are viewed more positively than others. Overall, it appears that GM foods may be acceptable in the U.S. and Chinese market. The findings in this study have potential implications for establishing various GM marketing strategies and information campaigns.

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Excess success in “Don’t count calorie labeling out: Calorie counts on the left side of menu items lead to lower calorie food choices”

10.31234/osf.io/23asd ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Gregory Francis ◽

Evelina Thunell

Keyword(s):

Success Rate ◽

Publication Bias ◽

Food Choices ◽

Effect Sizes ◽

Sample Sizes ◽

Research Practices ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Questionable Research Practices ◽

Calorie Labeling

Based on findings from six experiments, Dallas, Liu & Ubel (2019) concluded that placing calorie labels to the left of menu items influences consumers to choose lower calorie food options. Contrary to previously reported findings, they suggested that calorie labels do influence food choices, but only when placed to the left because they are in this case read first. If true, these findings have important implications for the design of menus and may help address the obesity pandemic. However, an analysis of the reported results indicates that they seem too good to be true. We show that if the effect sizes in Dallas et al. (2019) are representative of the populations, a replication of the six studies (with the same sample sizes) has a probability of only 0.014 of producing uniformly significant outcomes. Such a low success rate suggests that the original findings might be the result of questionable research practices or publication bias. We therefore caution readers and policy makers to be skeptical about the results and conclusions reported by Dallas et al. (2019).

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Determinants of food security and availability of healthy and safe nutrition - food security of children in rural Punjab, India

E3S Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/e3sconf/202129607003 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 296 ◽

pp. 07003

Author(s):

Kavita Sharma ◽

Sachin Sharma ◽

Deepak Sood

Keyword(s):

Food Security ◽

Academic Success ◽

Food Safety ◽

Primary Schools ◽

School Students ◽

School Food ◽

Security Systems ◽

Policy Makers ◽

School Aged Children ◽

Food Borne

It is critical to ensure that the availability of food, as well as food safety, are preserved in food security systems. This has substantial consequences on the health of world’s population. Food safety deals with food-borne disease, and it focuses on how, where, and what food is handled, prepared, and stored. The healthiness of a diet depends on the nutritional quality of its food. Food security is a multifaceted concept that takes into account several issues and projects throughout the globe. The findings from this study are intended to provide insight into the food security of children in rural Punjab, India. To study the possibility to establish sustainable programmes that assure hot meals for school students in rural Punjab, the primary goal of the research is to do so. Researchers in Punjab have not done any equivalent scholarly study focusing on food security from an economic standpoint. In-depth nondirective interviews were used to find out what experienced professionals thought. The findings reveal the need to increase family and school food resources to meet the nutritional requirements of children in rural regions. Additionally, offering hot meals in primary schools in impoverished communities is justifiable since poor nutrition among school-aged children has both short-term and long-term impacts on their academic success and development. These findings lead to management implications for policy makers who want to measure the effectiveness of national and state funded educational programmes.

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Food allergy, safety and analytics

Acta Agraria Debreceniensis ◽

10.34101/actaagrar/49/2552 ◽

2012 ◽

pp. 323-326

Author(s):

Sándor Tömösközi ◽

Lívia Hajas ◽

Tamás Langó ◽

Kitti Török ◽

Zsuzsanna Bugyi

Keyword(s):

Food Allergy ◽

Food Safety ◽

Hypersensitivity Reaction ◽

Food Analysis ◽

Analytical Methods ◽

Food Packaging ◽

Social Economic ◽

Health Food ◽

Economic Problems ◽

Naturally Occurring

The food allergy is a hypersensitivity reaction against naturally occurring proteins in food. These types of disease can cause not only personal inconvenience to the patient but serious health, food safety and food analysis, social-economic problems. The only effective treatment for these illnesses is a life-long diet avoiding the allergenic foods or components of food. In the interest of the patients’ health 14 allergenic components must be labeled on the food packaging. To meet the requirement of regulation reliable and valid analytical methods are necessary which for the most allergenic foods are not available.

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Factors related to street food consumer preferences of Gadjah Mada University students

Jurnal Gizi dan Dietetik Indonesia (Indonesian Journal of Nutrition and Dietetics) ◽

10.21927/ijnd.2016.4(2).63-70 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 4 (2) ◽

pp. 63

Author(s):

Winda Irwanti ◽

Yhona Paratmanitya

Keyword(s):

Test Score ◽

Consumer Preferences ◽

School Attendance ◽

Good Health ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Sectional Study ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Breakfast Consumption ◽

Health And Wellbeing ◽

Skipping Breakfast

ABSTRACTBackground: Breakfast plays an important role in ensuring the good health and wellbeing of an individual, especially children. Evidence suggests that breakfast consumption may improve cognitive function related to memory, exam test score and the level of school attendance.Objectives: To determine the breakfast habits and its risk factors in elementary school children in Bantul.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in four elementary schools in the District Sedayu, Bantul with 126 children as subjects. Breakfast habits investigated by interviews to the children.Results: This study showed that there were 33% of children had no breakfast daily, or had skipped breakfast at least once in a week. The major reasons of children skipping breakfast were not having enough time (38.1%), not hungry (30.9%) and no food available in the morning at home (16.7%). A total of 15.9% mothers and 23% fathers were not breakfast daily according to their children. Breakfast habits of children significantly associated with the children’s perception towards parent’s breakfast habits.Conclusions: Breakfast habits of children significantly associated with the children’s perception towards parent’s breakfast habits.KEYWORDS: breakfast habit, children perception, parent’s breakfast habitABSTRAKLatar belakang: Sarapan memiliki peran dalam menjaga kesehatan dan kebahagiaan seseorang, termasuk anak. Penelitian terdahulu membuktikan bahwa sarapan mampu meningkatkan fungsi kognitif yang berhubungan dengan kemampuan mengingat, nilai ujian, dan tingkat kehadiran di sekolah.Tujuan: Untuk mengetahui kebiasaan sarapan anak sekolah dasar di Kabupaten Bantul, dan faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhinya.Metode: Studi cross-sectional ini dilaksanakan di 4 sekolah dasar di Wilayah Kecamatan Sedayu, Kabupaten Bantul, dengan jumlah subjek sebanyak 126 anak. Kebiasaan sarapan diketahui dari wawancara dengan anak.Hasil: Hasil menunjukkan bahwa sebesar 33% anak sarapan tidak setiap hari, atau dalam seminggu paling tidak 1x melewatkan sarapan. Alasan utama anak melewatkan sarapan adalah tidak punya cukup waktu (38,1%), tidak lapar (30,9%), dan tidak tersedianya sarapan di rumah pada pagi hari (16,7%). Sebanyak 15,9% ibu, dan 23% ayah juga sarapan tidak setiap hari menurut persepsi anak. Kebiasaan sarapan anak berhubungan secara signifikan dengan persepsi anak terhadap kebiasaan sarapan orang tuanya.Kesimpulan: Kebiasaan sarapan anak berhubungan secara signifikan dengan persepsi anak terhadap kebiasaan sarapan orang tuanya.KATA KUNCI: kebiasaan sarapan, persepsi anak, kebiasaan sarapan orang tua

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