Influence of consumers' health risk perception of unwholesome foods on the purchase of pre-packaged foods

Abstract

Packing food has been around for a long time. Food safety rules become increasingly important in the policy as people's lives and consumption patterns evolve. Everyone is always worried about food safety since it is an essential issue in public health. A systematic questionnaire was utilised to collect information from Sunyani people of Ghana to validate this study's findings. 376 persons were used for this study, and the sample utilised face-to-face distribution procedures for the questionnaire, including open-ended questions. The data was analysed using IBM-SPSS version 25.0. The number of consumers who typically buy pre-packaged food differs considerably by gender between those who purchase pre-packaged foods rarely and those who buy frequently (p-value of 0.049). This is also true for respondents who are married, separated, or never married, as they are also significantly different (p-value of 0.004) regarding whether they occasionally or frequently purchase pre-packaged food. The survey also found that most respondents read food labels as part of a healthy lifestyle, with an odds ratio of 2.21 (95% CI 1.27 – 3.85) times more than other explanations. This study's findings also revealed that most respondents only read food labels to check for nutritional information, with an odds ratio of 2.18 (95% CI 1.07 – 4.41) times compared to other reasons. The public should be more aware of the need to read pre-packaged food labels since this will notify them of any potential problems after ingesting that product.