Afriyie Ebenezer, Gatzweiler Franz, Zurek Monika, Asem Freda E, Ahiakpa John K, Okpattah Bernard, Aidoo Emmanuel K, Zhu Yong-Guan
Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China.
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100043, China.
Foods. 2022 Oct 19;11(20):3266. doi: 10.3390/foods11203266.
Household-level food storage can help families save money, minimize food waste, and enhance food safety and security. Storing food within households may, however, be affected by domestic routines, like food shopping and cooking. Therefore, it is essential to evaluate how consumers' attitudes and behaviors influence food storage at the household level. This study aimed to assess the determinants of household-level food storage, ascertain consumers' behavior and perception towards food storage, and assess the effect of household-level food storage on food safety, wastage, food expenditure and security. Dzorwulu and Jamestown, both located in Accra, Ghana, served as the study's primary sites. The study employed a survey and structural equation modeling to evaluate key determinants of household-level food storage practices and their impacts. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered to 400 food household heads, sampled using a systematic sampling procedure. The results showed that food shopping drives food storage. There was, however, significant negative association (p < 0.001) between food shopping and time of food storage. Although cooking impedes household-level food storage, there was significant positive association (p < 0.001) between frequency of cooking and storage period of food commodities. The findings also revealed that household-level food storage promotes food safety, reduces food expenditure and waste, and contributes to enhancing food security by 43%. To promote household-level food storage and ensure food safety and security, future study should concentrate on enhancing conventional household-level food storage practices that are efficient, cheaper and easily implementable.
家庭层面的食物储存有助于家庭省钱、减少食物浪费，并提高食品安全保障水平。然而，家庭内部的食物储存可能会受到诸如食品采购和烹饪等家庭日常活动的影响。因此，评估消费者的态度和行为如何影响家庭层面的食物储存至关重要。本研究旨在评估家庭层面食物储存的决定因素，确定消费者对食物储存的行为和认知，并评估家庭层面食物储存对食品安全、浪费、食品支出和保障的影响。位于加纳阿克拉的佐尔武卢和詹姆斯敦作为该研究的主要地点。该研究采用调查和结构方程模型来评估家庭层面食物储存行为的关键决定因素及其影响。通过系统抽样程序，对400名食品户主进行了半结构化问卷调查。结果表明，食品采购推动了食物储存。然而，食品采购与食物储存时间之间存在显著的负相关关系（p < 0.001）。尽管烹饪会阻碍家庭层面的食物储存，但烹饪频率与食品商品的储存期之间存在显著的正相关关系（p < 0.001）。研究结果还显示，家庭层面的食物储存促进了食品安全，减少了食品支出和浪费，并使粮食安全提高了43%。为了促进家庭层面的食物储存并确保食品安全保障，未来的研究应专注于改进传统的家庭层面食物储存做法，这些做法高效、成本低且易于实施。
