Food products contamination has become a huge global issue, mostly related to foodborne diseases. Morbidity and mortality are on the increase worldwide due to the increasing incidence of foodborne diseases. Peanut-based products are reported to contribute significantly to food contamination issues. It needs to be addressed well to make sure consumers are safe from these hazards. Besides, all of the scientific knowledge of food products contaminations symptoms needs to be known not only among scientists but also among consumers. Thus, the objectives of this study are to examine consumers’ knowledge level towards contaminated peanut-based products and to determine factors influencing consumers’ knowledge towards consuming contaminated peanut-based products. A survey using a structured questionnaire was carried out among 1,263 respondents who consumed peanut and peanut-based products in daily, weekly or monthly diet at Klang Valley area. The results from this study showed that about 73.9% of total respondents have inadequate knowledge and only 26.1% have adequate knowledge towards the issue of contaminated peanut-based products. The results also indicated that there are five factors (mass media, practicing standard, packaging information, experience, and official government website) that greatly influenced consumers’ knowledge towards the issue of contaminated peanut-based products. Consumers who have lack knowledge of the danger in consuming contaminated peanuts-based products are at risk of adverse health effects if consumed in a long term. Hence, the government and NGOs need to carry out campaigns that would increase awareness among consumers towards the risks of consuming contaminated peanut-based products.
Halal is an important aspect of food selection as it is one’s part to obey religious obligations and commandments. Since the halal food industry covers the farm-to-table operations, therefore unwanted practices which culminate to halal food fraud along food supply chain has become a major concern among Muslim consumers. This is because food fraud is a subjective concept, hence objective verification of fraudulent activities and the extent of fraud could be difficult to verify. The current study was therefore carried out to determine Muslim consumers’ awareness and perceptions towards halal food fraud. A total of 352 respondents from Klang Valley areas were randomly selected to be the target respondents in this study. The data obtained were analyzed using descriptive analysis, chi-square analysis, and factor analysis. The results indicated that most of the respondents (96.9%) in Klang Valley areas were aware of halal food fraud issues. The findings also showed that gender, age, education level, and occupation had significant relationships with awareness of halal food fraud. Three factors were classified as influential to Muslim consumers’ perception towards halal food fraud namely halal logo, labeling and packaging, authorities’ exposure and enforcement as well as consumer attitude. The study recommended that Islamic authorities should continuously seek ways to improve and educate consumers towards halal food fraud while the government should further strengthen their important role of enforcing law and penalties to irresponsible industry players.
Majority consumers around the world have become increasingly concern and aware about their health and food safety. Recent food crisis and foodborne illness incidents showed the needs to assure the authenticity and traceability of foods in the market especially meat and meat products. These scandals have led to negative effect and perception to consumers, food companies and both supply and demand chain. Hence, the food industry needs an excellent and reliable traceability system to ensure that consumers are persistently well protected from unconscious consumption of unsafe foods. Therefore, traceability systems can support the claims by making it verifiable. However, the awareness among Malaysian consumers is still lacking due to the inadequate exposure towards concept and the importance of traceability systems particularly in meat and meat products. The aim of this study is to determine factors influencing consumers’ preferences towards traceability systems of meat and meat products in Malaysia. Primary data were collected using structured questionnaire via face to face interview with 503 respondents in Klang Valley, Malaysia. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive and factor analysis. The findings of descriptive analysis showed that most of the consumers preferred using traceability systems and aware of its importance when buying meat and meat products. Meanwhile, the factor analysis results discovered six factors that influenced consumers’ preferences towards meat and meat products with traceability systems namely Halal certificate, transparency, quality, confidence, food safety and knowledge. Therefore, implementation of traceability systems could raise standards of food safety throughout the meat production supply chain. Furthermore, the society will become more confident and they can benefit from the quality of purchase and consumption. The findings from this study are also able to contribute to the body of knowledge to the producers or marketers towards food safety issues and foodborne illness that recently happened in Malaysia.
Leaf extracts of Melicope lunu-ankenda were chemically studied and found to contain mixtures of hydrocarbons and squalene, fatty acids and esters. A geranylated coumaric acid was isolated as the major compound. The crude dichloromethane and methanol extracts of the leaves were found to be strongly larvicidal with LC50 values below 20 microg mL(-1). This is a first isolation of p-O-geranylcoumaric acid from this plant.