The Role of Media in Shaping the Consumers’ Food Risk Perception and Behavior: A Case Study of Spinach Recall

A clear understanding of consumers’ perception and attitude toward food risk and their behavior to food recall is important in order to develop an effective crisis management program at the firm level as well as at the government level. This study will develop food risk profiles of US consumers based on their perceived food safety risk and attitude toward food safety. The role of media usage in shaping the risk profile will be examined. The preliminary results suggest that the risk profiles of households were shaped by media usage. While the “accountables” were more likely to search internet or get news from internet, the “conservatives” usually watched news on local TV.Agribusiness, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Food Safety Risk Perceptions as a Tool for Market Segmentation: The U.S. Poultry Meat Market

This study explores the application of risk perceptions as a segmentation tool in the poultry meat market. Principal component analysis is used to examine data from a 2006 survey on a potential avian influenza outbreak in the U.S. The results suggest that the perceived level of safety of poultry meat will drive consumption choices in the case of an avian influenza outbreak. Based on the perceived safety level, the poultry meat product market was categorized into those that are home cooked and from familiar brands, the technological/novel, and organic/fast food poultry products, with the first category being perceived as the safest and the third as the least safe. The results also show significant differences in public trust in the avian influenza information provided by the government, poultry producers, politicians, and the media.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Livestock Production/Industries,

Impact pressures generated by spherical particle hypervelocity impact on Yorkshire Sandstone

Hypervelocity impact tests were carried out at 4.8 km/s using the Open University's All Axis Light Gas Gun (AALGG) in the Planetary and Space Sciences Research Institute (PSSRI)'s Hypervelocity Impact Laboratory. A first estimate of the peak loading pressures was made using preliminary hydrocode simulations, supported by calculations. Following a review of existing published quartz and sandstone data, our previously published plate impact data were combined with high pressure quartz data to produce a synthetic Hugoniot. This will form the basis of future hydrocode modelling, as a linear Us-Up relationship does not adequately represent the behaviour of sandstone over the pressure range of interest, as indicated by experimental data on Coconino sandstone. This work is a precursor to investigating the biological effects of shock on microorganisms in sandstone targets. This paper also contains the first presentation of results of ultra high speed imaging of hypervelocity impact at the Open University. © 2007 American Institute of Physics

Food Recalls and Food Safety Perceptions: The September 2006 Spinach Recall Case

This study analyzes public perceptions of food safety using a national survey conducted in November 2006, soon after the September 2006 nationwide spinach recall. We explore relationships between peoples’ perceived risks of food contamination (spinach in this case) and their trust in the institutions in charge of safeguarding/ensuring safety. Finally, we examine relationships between individual observance of basic good food handling practices and food safety. Trust in institutions through which food passes and regulatory agencies were shown to be critical in determining food safety perceptions. For example, confidence in the USDA as a regulatory agent was viewed positively, and hence contributed toward viewing the four types of spinach as safe for consumption. Conversely, skepticism with which the public views food corporations (processors, transporters, or retailers) impacted food safety perceptions negatively.food recalls, food safety, public perceptions, spinach, Agribusiness, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Food Recalls and Food Safety Perceptions: The September 2006 Spinach Recall Case

This paper examines public perceptions on food safety particularly relating to spinach, which was subject of countrywide recall in 2006. Results indicate that food safety perceptions may be driven by public trust/confidence in institutions whose activities may be directly or indirectly related to food safety. The results further suggest that food safety perceptions may also be related to the type of the product; for example, the public perceives frozen spinach differently from bagged fresh spinach. Additionally, the results show that low levels of objective knowledge about food pathogens and the resulting illnesses have implications on overall food safety. Results further indicate that females and Caucasians perceived the four types of spinach as safe for consumption. This outcome contrasts with views held by young people, people with education below high school and those belonging to the lower incomes groups, who viewed the four types of spinach as unsafe. More attention should be directed toward public education and outreach efforts on overall food safety targeting the youth, low income groups and those with education below high school. In addition, there is need for the regulatory agencies to put their act together, given current low levels of public trust in their role of safeguarding the food supply.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Electrostatic charging of jumping droplets

With the broad interest in and development of superhydrophobic surfaces for self-cleaning, condensation heat transfer enhancement and anti-icing applications, more detailed insights on droplet interactions on these surfaces have emerged. Specifically, when two droplets coalesce, they can spontaneously jump away from a superhydrophobic surface due to the release of excess surface energy. Here we show that jumping droplets gain a net positive charge that causes them to repel each other mid-flight. We used electric fields to quantify the charge on the droplets and identified the mechanism for the charge accumulation, which is associated with the formation of the electric double layer at the droplet–surface interface. The observation of droplet charge accumulation provides insight into jumping droplet physics as well as processes involving charged liquid droplets. Furthermore, this work is a starting point for more advanced approaches for enhancing jumping droplet surface performance by using external electric fields to control droplet jumping.United States. Dept. of Energy. Office of Basic Energy Sciences (Solid-State Solar-Thermal Energy Conversion Center Award DE-FG02-09ER46577)United States. Office of Naval ResearchNational Science Foundation (U.S.) (Major Research Instrumentation Grant for Rapid Response Research (MRI- RAPID))National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Award ECS-0335765)National Science Foundation (U.S.). Graduate Research Fellowship Program (Grant 1122374

Molecular physics of jumping nanodroplets

Next-generation processor-chip cooling devices and self-cleaning surfaces can be enhanced by a passive process that require little to no electrical input, through coalescence-induced nanodroplet jumping. Here, we describe the crucial impact thermal capillary waves and ambient gas rarefaction have on enhancing/limiting the jumping speeds of nanodroplets on low adhesion surfaces. By using high-fidelity non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations in conjunction with well-resolved volume-of-fluid continuum calculations, we are able to quantify the different dissipation mechanisms that govern nanodroplet jumping at length scales that are currently difficult to access experimentally. We find that interfacial thermal capillary waves contribute to a large statistical spread of nanodroplet jumping speeds that range from 0 - 30 m/s, where the typical jumping speeds of micro/millimeter sized droplets are only up to a few m/s. As the gas surrounding these liquid droplets is no longer in thermodynamic equilibrium, we also show how the reduced external drag leads to increased jumping speeds. This work demonstrates that, in the viscous-dominated regime, the Ohnesorge number and viscosity ratio between the two phases alone are not sufficient, but that the thermal fluctuation number (Th) and the Knudsen Number (Kn) are both needed to recover the relevant molecular physics at nanoscales. Our results and analysis suggest that these dimensionless parameters would be relevant for many other free-surface flow processes and applications that operate at the nanoscale