LAUSR

Abstract Objective Consumers’ proper food-handling practices have been considered to prevent most foodborne diseases. The study is to apply the health belief model (HBM) to explain consumers’ proper food-handling intention and explore the indirect effects of health consciousness on intention. Methods A national cross-sectional survey of Chinese consumers was conducted. This survey targeted two specific food-handling practices, i.e., handwashing and leftover processing. Validated and reliable questionnaires were used to conduct the survey with self-administered and face-to-face interviews. Structural equation model and mediation analyses were used to verify the proposed hypothesis. Results 3606 consumers were surveyed and 2564 valid questionnaires were returned. The results show that HBM can explain ∼60% of the variance in intention. Self-efficacy is the most critical predictor of intention. There are some differences in the determinants of intention for different food-handling practices. Health consciousness only has an indirect effect on intention through mediators. Specific mediators are determined. For handwashing, perceived severity, perceived benefits, and self-efficacy are significant mediators; for leftover processing, perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, and self-efficacy are significant mediators. Conclusion This study has demonstrated that HBM has a good explanatory power for consumers’ proper food-handling intention and its driving force. Health consciousness indirectly affects intention via mediators, which means that previous studies that only focused on direct effects may underestimate the role of health consciousness.