Consumers' mental model of food safety for fresh vegetables in Nairobi A field experiment using the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine consumers' perception of food safety for vegetables at traditional urban market outlets in a developing country context and test whether curiosity-motivated information acquisition and personal control over choice of stimuli influence consumer involvement, resulting in more differentiated mental models.Design/methodology/approach - The Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) in standard and modified form was used to develop consumers' mental models for food safety.Findings - The cognitive content and structure of aggregated consumers' mental models were identified and mapped. The maps included negative and positive meanings, indicating a need to tackle the hygiene problems prevailing in most traditional markets. ZMET generated a more differentiated map when people were empowered with a camera to collect stimuli.Research limitations/implications - Using ZMET to understand food safety perceptions avoids consumers being led in their responses, views and feelings about food safety.Practical implications - Policy, regulatory frameworks and marketing actions by value chain actors in the fresh vegetable subsector should give priority to tackling the hygiene problem prevalent in most traditional markets in developing countries.Originality/value - This paper provides novel needs-driven theoretical and practical insights into the actual meaning representation of food safety, which actually drives consumer thoughts and behaviour. Making use of a camera in the collection of self-provided images for the ZMET interview led to higher levels of involvement and further differentiation of mental models.