Purpose

Consumers’ trust in food systems is essential to their functioning and to consumers’ well-being. However, the literature exploring how food safety incidents impact consumer trust is theoretically underdeveloped. This study explores the relationship between consumers’ expectations of the food system and its actors (regulators, food industry and the media) and how these influence trust-related judgements that consumers make during a food safety incident.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, two groups of purposefully sampled Australian participants (n = 15) spent one day engaged in qualitative public deliberation to discuss unfolding food incident scenarios. Group discussion was audio recorded and transcribed for the analysis. Facilitated group discussion included participants' expected behaviour in response to the scenario and their perceptions of actors' actions described within the scenario, particularly their trust responses (an increase, decrease or no change in their trust in the food system) and justification for these.

Findings

The findings of the study indicated that food incident features and unique consumer characteristics, particularly their expectations of the food system, interacted to form each participant's individual trust response to the scenario. Consumer expectations were delineated into “fundamental” and “anticipatory” expectations. Whether fundamental and anticipatory expectations were in alignment was central to the trust response. Experiences with the food system and its actors during business as usual contributed to forming anticipatory expectations.

Originality/value

To ensure that food incidents do not undermine consumer trust in food systems, food system actors must not only demonstrate competent management of the incident but also prioritise trustworthiness during business as usual to ensure that anticipatory expectations held by consumers are positive.

中文翻译：

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建立对粮食系统信任的期望和日常机会

目的

消费者对食品系统的信任对于他们的功能和消费者的福祉至关重要。但是，从理论上讲，探讨食品安全事件如何影响消费者信任度的文献尚不完善。这项研究探索了消费者对食品系统及其行为者（监管者，食品工业和媒体）的期望之间的关系，以及它们如何影响消费者在食品安全事件中做出的与信任相关的判断。

设计/方法/方法

在这项研究中，两组有意抽样的澳大利亚参与者（n  = 15）花了一天的时间进行定性的公共讨论，以讨论不断发生的食品事件的情况。小组讨论被录音并转录以进行分析。便利的小组讨论包括参与者对情景的预期行为以及情景中描述的参与者对行为的理解，尤其是他们对信任的回应（对粮食系统的信任增加，减少或没有变化）和理由。

发现

研究结果表明，食品事件特征和独特的消费者特征，特别是他们对食品系统的期望，相互作用形成了每个参与者对情景的个人信任响应。消费者期望被划分为“基本”和“预期”期望。基本期望和预期期望是否一致对于信任响应至关重要。粮食系统及其参与者在日常业务中的经验有助于形成预期的期望。

创意/价值

为确保食品事件不会破坏消费者对食品系统的信任，食品系统参与者不仅必须表现出对该事件的有效管理，还必须像往常一样在业务开展过程中优先考虑可信赖度，以确保消费者对预期的期望是积极的。