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Growing concerns about risks to public health have heightened consumer awareness of safety in food consumption. Understanding consumer perception of risk and impact on purchase behaviour is a key issue for the mutual benefit of both consumers and food industry. An exploratory study in the form of personal interviews was carried out to investigate the perceived main food risks in chicken meat product, together with the components of perceived loss and risk reducing strategies. The results suggested the importance of lifestyle loss as a separate factor along with health, financial, time, and product performance loss. Risk reducing strategies adopted by consumers were matched with the marketing strategies used by the food industry, such as product quality assurance, product information and pricing. Consumers felt able to reduce exposure to food safety risk by personal control in the post‐purchase handling and preparation of chicken meat.

Consumer perception of risk and its impacts on purchasing behaviour are critical aspects of food safety. Consumer risk management strategies influence, and respond to, the risk management strategies adopted by the food industry. This research, using poultry product as the focus, aims to identify the consumer risk-reducing strategies and their impact on perception of food safety-related risk and then on purchase behaviour.

By adopting a quantitative research paradigm with a quota sample of 200 respondents, a Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) model was built to assess the direct and indirect effects of strategies taken by consumers to reduce perceived risk and the consequences for purchase likelihood, utilising LISREL 8.30.

The research reveals brand, information and quality assurance as influential risk-reducing strategies to reduce consumer perception of food safety risk and subsequently to facilitate purchase likelihood during a period concerned about microbiological contamination in chicken meat.

The results provide guidance of both proactive and remedial actions that the food industry can follow and also help to evaluate the effectiveness of its marketing activities.

The research provides an insight in assisting government agencies and the food industry to develop appropriate food-related risk management strategies to serve the interests of both consumers and producers.

‘Off the shelf’ or ‘custom development’? Adept Technology takes a middle course for integrating inspection and control.

In the UK, the past five years have seen an unprecedented development in internal audit in central government. The authors explain how this came about, the initiatives taken and their impact. The development is illustrated, taking the example of the Department of Trade and Industry. The authors assess the direction this development is likely to take in the future.

Food safety is an important issue facing consumers, the food industry and the government. Since consumers cannot themselves easily assess food safety risks, their perception of food safety is, in part, a matter of trust in the food chain. This study seeks to focus on livestock farmers and to investigate the causal relationship between the factors that determine consumer trust, regarding food safety and in turn their purchase likelihood.

By integrating theories developed in several disciplines, six factors, namely: providing information, competence, integrity, benevolence, credibility, and reliability were adopted for this study. The conceptual model was tested with a sample of 194 individuals in the form of a structural equation model using LISREL 8.30.

The research confirms that livestock farmers could draw benefit from strategies to increase their trustworthiness through provision of information, show their benevolence and integrity to consumers, and in turn positively influence consumers' purchasing decision.

Livestock farmers should understand more specifically what consumers want to know and provide accurate and reliable information.

This exploratory study provides a useful insight into the potential benefit from trust building that could be derived by livestock farmers, food safety regulators and the food supply chain as a whole, as well as the ways in which this might be achieved.

Food safety has become a major issue of public concern, encouraging the UK Government and the food industry to take steps to rebuild consumer confidence. In this context, the paper draws on a review of research literature to develop a conceptual framework to identify and review the factors influencing consumer perception of food safety related risks and the likely impact on purchasing behaviour. The relevance of strategies adopted by consumers to reduce risk exposure and the influence on the likelihood of food purchase are also explored, together with the implication for the food industry.

Formed just over a year ago the UK company Meta Machines has set its sights on advanced technology products. Brian Rooks reports on its first two product lines

The development of a vision‐guided robot for TIG welding is being claimed as a breakthrough by Meta Machines. Brian Rooks reports on a system to weld rocket motors for a Swedish company.

The Adept vision‐guided robot system, which is now distributed in the UK and Europe by Meta Machines, incorporates new vision sensing features