Attitudes of grangers, wholesalers, retailers and consumers toward the sanitary quality of in natura chicken eggs

Abstract

One of the greatest concerns at the moment is the question of food safety, since, despite great technological innovations in the production, storage and distribution phases, food poisoning cases continue to occur at an increasing rate. The objective of this work was to analyze the attitudes of consumers, retailers, wholesalers and producers toward the sanitary quality of in natura chicken eggs. In all, 152 women, 39 retail establishments (24 supermarkets, 3 hypermarkets, 6 open-air markets, 3 municipal retailers and 3 private retailers), 7 wholesalers and 7 grangers were interviewed. This survey showed that more than 50% of the women interviewed presented equivocal knowledge with respect to the size of the egg, the origin of the product and the color of the shell. Refrigeration, an extremely important point concerning sanitary quality, was also incorrectly evaluated by almost 50% of the women interviewed. The questions of product origin, cleanliness and integrity of the shell, packaging and time for commercialization were correctly evaluated by more than 50% of the wholesalers interviewed, in opposition to the items refrigeration and best before date, cited as less important than the former items by those interviewed. In the case of the producers, refrigeration was the only item considered incorrectly. These results suggest the need for the implementation of campaigns focussed on education.