Unlocking Food Safety: Message-Based Strategies to Promote Safe Behaviours in Young Adults

This study addresses the important issue of how to promote safe behaviours with food at home. We tested the effectiveness of a message-based communication strategy among young adults aged 18-35 years. Using a repeated measures design, the study manipulated two factors in the message-based intervention phase, namely gain- vs loss-framed prefactual (i.e., “If… then”) content and positively vs negatively framed procedural (i.e., howto-do suggestions) content. A power analysis showed that an effect of f2 = 0.15 with a power of 90% and an alpha of 0.05 could be detected in a sample of 520 participants. After ethical approval, we recruited a sample of 588 participants (332 females), who first answered a questionnaire on food safety habits, attitudes, awareness of consequences, and self-efficacy. They were then randomly assigned to one of the four experimental conditions or to a control condition and answered a follow-up questionnaire after the intervention. Results revealed a positive and significant effect of the intervention on self-reported behaviours. In addition, the intervention influenced participants' awareness and self-efficacy, while no effects on attitudes were observed. Overall, message framing had no differential effect on behaviour change, but moderation analysis showed that framing effectiveness depended on the psychological characteristics of the readers. These results provide valuable insight into the effectiveness of food safety interventions for young adults in the home environment. Future research should explore the subtleties of message framing and consider additional factors that could improve the success of interventions to promote safe food practises at home.