Consumer Food-Safety Literacy in Sous-Vide Practices: From Knowledge Deficits to Safety Behaviour

Abstract

Sous-vide preparation and ready-to-eat foods depend on controlled time–temperature processing, appropriate packaging, rapid chilling where required, refrigeration, storage, and handling. Consumer safety therefore depends not only on factual knowledge but also on the ability and confidence to apply food-safety information in practical situations. This study examined the relationships among sous-vide food-safety knowledge (SVK), applied food-safety literacy (AFSL), safety self-efficacy (SSE), safe sous-vide practice (SSP), and potentially unsafe and non-recommended sous-vide practices (PUNSP). A structured cross-sectional survey of 400 respondents from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana was analysed using descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, Pearson correlations, multiple regression, and bootstrap mediation analysis. SVK was positively associated with AFSL (r = .439), and AFSL was positively associated with both SSE (r = .555) and SSP (r = .578). In the regression models, AFSL and SSE were significant positive predictors of SSP, whereas SVK was not significant after adjustment for the other predictors. The indirect association between SVK and SSP through AFSL was statistically supported (indirect effect = 0.0535, 95% bootstrap CI [0.0353, 0.0736]). Potentially unsafe and non-recommended practices were strongly inversely associated with safe practice. The findings indicate that food-safety knowledge and its practical application are related but distinct dimensions of consumer food-safety competence. The results support consumer education that emphasises scenario-based interpretation, validated time–temperature controls, packaging suitability, chilling, refrigeration, storage, and reheating rather than relying on general awareness alone.