Factors Influencing the Efficacy of Food Safety Communication

This paper explores factors influencing the efficacy of risk communication of food safety. An experiment on undergraduates was conducted to examine the role of knowledge, previous attitude, and content of information in risk communication about transgenic animal. The study shows consumer´s risk perception of food safety changes rapidly according to the content of information. It seems that consumer´s risk perception of food safety is unstable in that risk perception can be easily reversed by information opposite to consumer´s previous attitude. Consumer´s knowledge of genetic engineering neither has relation to the level of risk perception of food safety nor has influence on the efficacy of risk communication. This study has implications for food safety propaganda aiming at reassuring consumer´s confidence on food safety.