Beliefs, attitude and behaviour towards fresh meat revisited after the Belgian dioxin crisis

This study revisits consumer beliefs, attitude and behaviour towards fresh meat consumption in Belgium after the occurrence of the dioxin crisis of 1999. The meat dioxin scare evoked a large amount of negative press, mainly pertained to poultry meat and pork. The focus of this follow-up study is on assessing shifts and persistence in consumer perception and attitude, based on cross-sectional data obtained from a sample of 205 meat consumers. Comparison with previous research reveals reasonable shifts in meat attribute perception and image dimensions. Beef perception significantly improved on containing hormones and safety-attributes, contrary to the evolution seen for poultry and pork. Persistence of perception is revealed for meat attributes that were not directly involved in the information flow of the last years. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.