Consumers' valuation of food safety control measures for selected vegetables in Taguig City, 2011

Date

4-2012

Degree

Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Economics

College

College of Economics and Management (CEM)

Adviser/Committee Chair

Salvador P. Catelo

Committee Member

Prudenciano U. Gordoncillo, Ma. Eden S. Piadozo

Abstract

This study was an attempt to determine the value given by Taguig City households to the food safety control measures for cabbage, eggplant, and tomato through their willingness to pay. Specifically, it aimed to: (1) determine and analyze the consumers‟ awareness about pesticide residues and microbial pathogen contaminants, as well as their awareness about existing sanitation laws, (2) determine if the combination of sanitary procedures employed by the consumers can assure that the vegetables were clean enough for the household‟s consumption, (3) determine the consumers‟ risk perception for pesticide residues and microbial pathogen contaminants, (4) determine if the consumers are willing to pay for the control measures and determine the average (mean) and annual aggregate amount that the consumers are willing to pay for the food safety control measures, and (5) identify the effect of the chosen explanatory variables to the amount that the consumers are willing to pay (WTP) for the control measures. To fulfill these objectives, Likert summated rating scale, contingent valuation method, multiple regression analyses, and descriptive analysis via checklist and frequency counts were employed to secondary and primary data. Primary data were solicited to 85 households.

It was found out that majority of the respondents had access to at least three media tools and TV was the most accessible followed by radio and newspaper. Majority of the respondents had medium awareness on pesticide residues and high awareness on microbial pathogen contaminants. When asked if they had any experience related to the mentioned hazards, majority replied none. Most household buy their vegetables in wet market. Moreover, more than half of the households believed that 7-9 legal descriptions were followed by their selected retail outlet, out of the 9 legal descriptions presented to them. Most of the households were aware of at least 7 sanitation laws out of the 8 sanitation laws presented to them. The sanitary procedures employed by the consumers were generally acceptable. Despite this, they still had high risk perception for pesticide residues and microbial pathogens found on the surface of vegetables.

Generally, the consumers had positive general acceptance of the five food safety control measures that were presented since eighty percent and above were willing to pay for these. On the average, their WTP amount for all of the vegetables, ranged from Ᵽ1.74 - Ᵽ2.64. As for the aggregate or total WTP, values for eggplant were the highest in any of the five control measures with amounts ranging from 5.2 million pesos to 6.9 million pesos. These were followed by the total WTPs for tomato with amounts ranging from 2.1 million pesos to 2.4 million pesos. Total WTPs for cabbage were the smallest with amounts ranging from 1.6 million pesos to 2 million pesos.

The statistically significant over-all regression models were WTP amounts for plastic bins used as containers of cabbage, temperature controlled transport of eggplant, plastic bins used as containers of tomato, and temperature controlled transport of tomato. Age and gender were statistically significant in the first two models while household size, highest educational attainment, access to news and information and number of sanitation laws known by the consumers were statistically significant in all of the four models. Gender, access to news and information, and number of sanitation laws known by the v consumers consistently showed positive effect on WTP amount. On the other hand, age, household size, and highest educational attainment consistently exhibited negative effect.

The problems encountered by the consumers were the following: unidentifiable sources or suppliers of the vegetables‟ retailers, uncertainty towards the pre-purchase sanitation condition of the vegetables, uncertainty towards the effectiveness of the consumers‟ sanitary procedures in removing the contaminants, inaccessible market outlet of organic products, and uncertainty towards the authenticity of vegetables labelled or claimed to be organic.

To address the problems as well as the other important concerns which were identified in this study, some recommendations were made. The first one was the awareness program that will focus on teaching the least known areas of food safety. The second one was further study on the supply side that will allow for a cost-benefit test to know if it is really realistic to implement the control measures. The third and the last one was the trace-back mechanism and certification that will detect safe and unsafe vegetables. This will also help in informing the consumers about retail outlets that sell truly safe vegetables through the certification issued to those who will pass the trace-back procedure.

Language

English

Call Number

Thesis

Document Type

Thesis

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS