Use of the health belief model to examine food safety and nutrition attitudes and behavior related to fruits and vegetables

Inter-relationships of food safety and nutrition issues related to fruits and vegetables were examined using the Health Belief Model (HBM). The project assessed; (a) nutrition attitudes toward fruit and vegetable consumption, (b) food safety concerns and behavior, (c) differences between consumers with varying concerns about nutrition and food safety, and (d) importance of trust in understanding food safety issues.;Two thousand Washington state residents were surveyed on food safety and nutrition topics. Questions addressed HBM constructs. Inclusion of questions into a construct score was determined by content validity, Cronbach's alpha coefficient, and inter-item correlation.;The construct score Benefits of Fruit and Vegetable Intake was a contributor to nutrition concern, while Barriers to Fruit and Vegetable Intake was associated with fewer nutrition behaviors. Those with high food safety concern practiced more food safety behaviors, felt more susceptible to cancer and had higher environmental concern.;Respondents were divided into four groups based on level of food safety and nutrition concern. Respondents with high food safety and high nutrition concern had the highest food safety behaviors, environmental concern, felt most susceptible to cancer and had the lowest trust in regulation of agriculture chemicals. Individuals with low concern for both food safety and nutrition had higher trust and saw more benefits in agricultural chemical use. Individuals with low trust in agriculture chemical regulation had higher food safety concern and environmental concern and felt more susceptible to cancer. High trusters saw more benefits in agriculture chemical use.;A lower amount of variability in nutrition concern and behavior was explained using model constructs than explained for food safety concern and behavior. This may imply that nutrition concern and nutrition behavior are influenced by intervening variables to a greater extent than food safety concern and food safety behavior. Overall, the HBM constructs and other food safety constructs provided insight into food safety and nutrition attitudes and behaviors related to fruits and vegetables.