Food Protection Trends - March/April 2021 - 205

inaccuracies (9, 35). For example, a recent study analyzed
the accuracy and reliability of food safety information
posted by users on Reddit and other online, communitybased question-and-answer platforms, finding that the
advice given is widely inconsistent in comparison to
government recommendations for safe food handling (35).
Prior research shows that consumer safe food-handling
practices at home are often influenced by their friends,
families, and social networks and that consumers are
increasingly using online resources to access information
about food safety (11, 22, 37, 38).
Reddit is an community-based website that was ranked
as the sixth most popular website in the United States in
2020 (3). Reddit allows users to post original content (e.g.,
questions) or links to other articles (e.g., news), which
are then commented on by other users in the community
(31). Users can then upvote or downvote each response or
comment in a post, with those receiving more upvotes rising
to the top of the page. An account is not required to browse
and review posts on the website, but one is needed to post
content or to comment on other users' posts. Reddit contains
many topic-specific communities called subreddits, in which
users can post and discuss more specific issues, and each
subreddit is managed by a team of volunteer moderators who
ensure quality control (e.g., by removing irrelevant, insincere,
or low-quality posts and comments).
Theories of behavior change can be used to identify and
explain the key factors that influence consumers' safe food
handling behaviors (23, 25, 26, 36). The theory of planned
behavior (TPB) is one of the most commonly applied
theories in this area (23, 25, 26, 36). TPB states that an
individual's attitude toward a behavior, their subjective
norm (i.e., perceived influence of other people important
to them, such as friends and family), and their perceived
behavioral control (i.e., self-confidence and control over the
behavior) all influence their intention to change a behavior
(2). Behavior change is then influenced directly by an
individual's intentions and their perceived behavioral control
(2). Another theory, called the technology acceptance model
(TAM), can be used to explain people's intentions to use
websites to search for health-related information (39). TAM
suggests that an individual's intentions to adopt or use a
new technology are primarily influenced by the perceived
ease of use of the technology and its perceived usefulness
(10). Yun and Park (40) applied this model to online health
information-seeking behavior, adding the construct of
perceived credibility of the website as another important
determinant of intentions.
There is a need to investigate the extent to which young
adults who use online question-and-answer communities,
such as Reddit, search for and use food safety information
provided by their peers to inform their food safety practices at home. Therefore, a study was conducted, informed
by TPB and TAM, to survey users of Reddit about their

food safety information-seeking intentions and to determine factors associated with this outcome. We selected
Reddit for this study given its wide popularity among
young adults and because previous research has found that
it is frequently used for peer dissemination of information
and advice about food safety (3, 31, 35). The study results
can be used to inform food safety professionals about possible online communication strategies and considerations
for young adults.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Study design
A cross-sectional study was conducted from October
2019 to January 2020 to evaluate the food safety information-seeking preferences and practices of young adults who
use the Reddit website. The target population for the survey
was young adults (age 18 to 39 years) who use Reddit at
least occasionally. In addition, participants were required to
be responsible for preparing meals at home at least once a
week. There were no location-based or other exclusion criteria for the survey. The study was reviewed and approved
by the Ryerson University Research Ethics Board (REB No.
2019-381).
Participant selection
We distributed a link to the questionnaire on the following
Reddit communities: r/SampleSize, r/foodsafety, r/
Cooking, r/cookingforbeginners, and r/AskCulinary. The
r/SampleSize community is designed for the exchange of
research and other surveys, whereas the other subreddits
are topic-specific communities that include discussion
and questions related to cooking at home, including
food handling and safety (35). The moderators of some
communities (r/Cooking, r/cookingforbeginners, and r/
AskCulinary) occasionally removed the survey link despite
there being no explicit rules about not posting surveys
in these subreddits. Because of a low initial response, we
expanded the survey link distribution in November 2019 to
four public Facebook groups designed for sharing of research
surveys: The Research Survey Exchange Group, Thesis/
Survey Questionnaire Filling Group, Survey Exchange,
and Survey Sharing 2019. Survey links were reposted in
approximately 2-week intervals during the study period.
Questionnaire design and questions
A questionnaire was developed based on the TAM and
TPB frameworks, with specific questions adapted from
previous studies and questionnaires in the literature (10,
13, 25, 31, 39). The online questionnaire was hosted on the
Opinio survey platform at Ryerson University. It contained
30 questions, including 3 screening questions for eligibility.
The first section contained 6 questions about participants'
Reddit use: hours of use per day (number of hours); primary
use of Reddit (active poster or commenter versus passive

March/April Food Protection Trends

205

Food Protection Trends - March/April 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Food Protection Trends - March/April 2021