Soon-Sinclair Jan Mei, Imathiu Samuel, Obadina Adewale Olusegun, Dongho Dongmo Fabrice Fabien, Kamgain Alex Dimitri Tchuenchieu, Moholisa Ennet, Saba Courage Kosi Setsoafia, Walekhwa Abel Wilson, Hunga Henry, Kussaga Jamal
Faculty of Allied-Health and Wellbeing, University of Central Lancashire, Preston PRI 2HE, UK.
Department of Food Science and Technology, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Nairobi 00200, Kenya.
Foods. 2023 Sep 29;12(19):3627. doi: 10.3390/foods12193627.
Food fraud is an old, recurring, and global threat to public health. It poses a serious threat to food security in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Despite the prevalence of food fraud in SSA, little is known about how food fraud is viewed by consumers. This study aims to provide an overview of consumers' concerns about food fraud in SSA. A multi-country survey was conducted in October 2022-31 January 2023, and 838 valid responses were returned. To reduce the large and correlated dataset, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used. Five components were derived from PCA: (i) Staple foods; (ii) Premium food and drink products; (iii) Trust in reliable sources; (iv) Trust in less reliable sources; and (v) Trust in food vendors. The findings revealed Ghanaian (mean rank = 509.47) and Nigerian (mean rank = 454.82) consumers tended to score higher on the measure of food fraud concern suggesting that they were less confident in the safety and quality of the food they consume. Demographic characteristics including age, number of children, personal and family experience of food fraud and PCA components such as 'Staple foods', 'Trust in reliable sources', and 'Trust in food vendors' significantly predicted the model. This is the first preliminary study to provide empirical findings on consumers' concerns about food fraud in SSA. Practical and policy recommendations for the region are suggested. This includes (i) modelling the AfriFoodinTegrity in West Africa across other major regions such as Central, East, and Southern Africa; (ii) establish a regional sub-Saharan Africa Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (SSA-RASFF) platform; and (iii) food safety and food fraud reports could be incorporated into SSA-RASFF portal for information sharing.
食品欺诈是一个长期存在且反复出现的全球性公共卫生威胁。它对撒哈拉以南非洲地区（SSA）的食品安全构成了严重威胁。尽管食品欺诈在SSA地区普遍存在，但消费者如何看待食品欺诈却鲜为人知。本研究旨在概述SSA地区消费者对食品欺诈的担忧。2022年10月至2023年1月进行了一项多国调查，共收到838份有效回复。为了减少庞大且相关的数据组，使用了主成分分析（PCA）。PCA得出了五个成分：（i）主食；（ii）优质食品和饮料产品；（iii）对可靠来源的信任；（iv）对不太可靠来源的信任；以及（v）对食品供应商的信任。研究结果显示，加纳消费者（平均排名=509.47）和尼日利亚消费者（平均排名=454.82）在食品欺诈担忧程度的衡量上得分较高，这表明他们对所消费食品的安全性和质量缺乏信心。包括年龄、子女数量、个人和家庭食品欺诈经历等人口统计学特征以及“主食”、“对可靠来源的信任”和“对食品供应商的信任”等PCA成分显著预测了该模型。这是第一项提供关于SSA地区消费者对食品欺诈担忧的实证研究。针对该地区提出了实际和政策建议。这包括（i）在西非其他主要地区（如中部、东部和南部非洲）对“非洲食品诚信”进行建模；（ii）建立撒哈拉以南非洲地区食品和饲料快速预警系统（SSA-RASFF）平台；以及（iii）将食品安全和食品欺诈报告纳入SSA-RASFF门户网站以进行信息共享。
