Fruit and vegetable consumption - the influence of aspects associated with trust in food and safety and quality of food

Abstract

Objective: To profile adults who eat less than the recommended servings of fruit and vegetables per day. Design: Australia-wide population telephone survey on a random sample of the Australian population, with results analysed by univariate and multivariate models. Setting: Australia. Subjects: One thousand one hundred and eight interviews, respondents' (49.3 % males) mean age was 45.12 (sd 17.63) years. Results: Overall 54.8 % and 10.7 % were eating the recommended number of servings of fruit and vegetables. Variables included in the multivariate model indicating low fruit consumption included gender, age, employment, education and those who were less likely to consider the safety and quality of food as important. In regard to low vegetable consumption, people who were more likely to do the food shopping only 'some of the time' and have a high level of trust in groups of people such as immediate family, neighbours, doctors and different levels of government were included in the final model. They were also less likely to neither consider the safety and quality of food as important nor trust organisations/institutions such as the press, television and politicians. In the final model depicting both low fruit and low vegetable servings, sex, age and a low level of importance with regard to safety and quality of food were included. Conclusion: To increase fruit and vegetable consumption, research into a broad range of determinants associated with behaviours should be coupled with a deeper understanding of the process associated with changing behaviours. While levels of trust are related to behaviour change, knowledge and attitudes about aspects associated with safety and quality of food are also of importance.