Consumers concern on food safety for domestic fresh tomato and its socio-economic factors in Albania-a multinomial regression approach

Myslym Osmani, Mira Andoni and Arben Kambo

Abstract: The goal of this research is to assess the level and factors of the consumers’ concern on food safety risks of locally produced tomato in Albania. Data are collected through a survey of 824 randomly selected individuals in the metropolitan area of the Tirana city. Descriptive statistics are used but the key analytical tool is the multinomial logistic regression. Results show that the general level of concern is pretty high, 4.7, perceived benefit from the consumption of tomato is 3.6 and the perceived risk is 6.71 on a measurement scale from 0 to 10. Perceived benefit and risk are found to be major factors that determine the consumers’ concern level. Other factors affecting consumers’ concern are the household’s income and size, as well as the religious affiliation of the consumers. Other factors, such as gender, educational level and age of the consumer do not have significant effects on the concern level, though females, more educated and younger people tend to have higher levels of the variable as compared to other categories of people. Education and information of consumers, as well as improved public risk management, are some recommendations to improve consumers’ perceived concern and confidence in tomato food safety.

Keywords: consumers concern; food safety; multinomial model; perceived benefit; perceived risk; tomato

Date published: 2021-02-25