Perceptions of Food Safety and of Personal Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation for Food Safety Practices Among Cambodians Involved with Informal Vegetable Markets

Poor food safety in informal, open-air markets remains a pressing issue in Cambodia, contributing to both foodborne illness and malnutrition. In order to design food safety programs that successfully promote positive food safety practices among the various actors involved in these markets, is important to understand their perceptions of food safety and of their own capability, opportunity, and motivation for adopting positive food safety behaviors. To that end, this research sought to explore and describe the perceptions of vegetable vendors, vegetable distributors, and vegetable growers in the Cambodian provinces of Battambang, Siem Reap, and Phnom Penh regarding food safety and their own personal capability, opportunity, and motivation for implementing specific food safety practices. To note, this research was made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) though Cooperative Agreement No. 7200AA19LE00003 to Purdue University as management entity of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Safety. The contents are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government. The first portion of the research, which examined levels of perceived capability, opportunity, and motivation for positive food safety practices among actors involved in informal vegetable markets in Cambodia, employed a quantitative questionnaire based on the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation-Behavior model of behavior and the Theoretical Domains Framework. A pilot study using this questionnaire was performed with vegetable vendors in the Province of Phnom Penh (N = 55), after which the questionnaire was revised and implemented in person with vegetable distributors in Battambang Province (n = 37) and vegetable vendors and growers in Battambang (n = 26 and n = 27, respectively) and Siem Reap Provinces (n = 61 and n = 30, respectively). To validate the questionnaire, response data from participants in Battambang and Siem Reap were evaluated using confirmatory factor analysis. The resultant nine-factor model had a comparative fit index of .91, a Tucker-Lewis index of .89, and a root mean square error of approximation of .05. Data analysis proceeded using a fitted general linear mixed model. Results of this analysis suggested that levels of perceived motivation and capability for the target food safety practice were typically significantly higher (p \u3c .05) than levels of perceived opportunity among vegetable vendors and distributors, regardless of location. Levels of perceived opportunity and perceived capability were significantly lower (p \u3c .05) than levels of perceived motivation among vegetable growers in both Battambang and Siem Reap. Significantly higher (p\u3c .05) levels of perceived opportunity and motivation for the target food safety practice were observed among vendors in Battambang in comparison to vendors in Siem Reap; perceptions of all three behavioral determinants were higher among vendors in Battambang than among farmers in either location. Subsequently, a quantitative questionnaire regarding participants’ perceptions of vegetable safety was implemented in person with vegetable growers in Battambang (n = 41) and Siem Reap (n = 28) and vegetable vendors in Phnom Penh (n= 31). Response data were analyzed using a fitted logistic regression model