Knowledge, attitudes and food safety practices of raw fish consumers: how to understand their risk perception and future behavior intentions to promote their health preventing the risk of infection

The study of Anisakis is an increasingly hot topic in medicine, biology and epidemiological studies. However the assessment of social-psychological factors relevant for Anisakis’ risky consumption behaviors is still a missing topic. A lot of psychological research focused on antecedents of fish and seafood consumption, however parasite risk is not often specifically examined. This research is aimed at increasing safety for seafood products consumers’, examining their knowledge, perception, awareness and concern about Anisakis. Past behaviors and future behavior intentions were also investigated. Analyses, conducted on a sample of 251 subjects, aim to provide descriptive data and then try to hypothesize regression models that explain possible causality assumptions among the variables. Results show that knowledge (subjective and objective) about Anisakis and past experience (norms and habits) linked to the consumption of raw fish, can significantly predict Anisakiasis risk perception and future behavior intentions (fish avoidance and willingness to pay for Anisakis-free fish products). It also emerges how some sociodemographic variables (e.g., age) significantly influence knowledge. The study then examined the influence of perceived health and the correlations between key variables.