=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-3293/paper10
|storemode=property
|title=Consumers' Perception of Novel Value Chain Practices: The Perceived Added Value of Green Disinfestation Methods - Abstract
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3293/paper10.pdf
|volume=Vol-3293
|authors=Christina Kleisiari,Leonidas-Sotirios Kyrgiakos,Georgios Kleftodimos,Paraskevi Agrafioti,Evagelia Lampiri,George Vlontzos,Christos Athanassiou,Dimitrios Kateris,Dionysis Bochtis
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/haicta/KleisiariKKALVA22
}}
==Consumers' Perception of Novel Value Chain Practices: The Perceived Added Value of Green Disinfestation Methods - Abstract==
<pdf width="1500px">https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3293/paper10.pdf</pdf>
<pre>
Consumers’ Perception of Novel Value Chain Practices: The
Perceived Added Value of Green Disinfestation Methods -
Abstract
Christina Kleisiari 1, Leonidas Sotirios Kyrgiakos 1, Georgios Kleftodimos 1, Paraskevi
Agrafioti 1, Evagelia Lampiri 2, George Vlontzos 1, Christos Athanassiou 1, Dimitrios Kateris 1
and Dionysis Bochtis 1
1
  Centre of Research and Technology-Hellas (CERTH), Institute for Bio-Economy and Agri-Technology (IBO),
6th Km Charilaou-Thermi Rd., GR 57001 Thessaloniki, Greece
2
  Laboratory of Entomology and Agricultural Zoology, Department of Agriculture, Crop Production and Rural
Environment, University of Thessaly, Phytokou str. 38446, N. Ionia, Magnesia, Greece


                 Summary
                 Pests in silos and warehouses are the main reason for the biggest losses in stored feed and food.
                 These insects cause significant quantitative impairments and considerable quality degradations
                 with significant sanitary and economic impact. The main trend for managing insect populations
                 is based on chemical insecticides (i.e. phosphine), which are either applied directly to the
                 product or indirectly into storage places. Misuse of these active ingredients increases
                 production costs, product loses and gradually to decreased effectiveness of them on reducing
                 pests’ populations. In addition, phosphine is highly toxic and can be dangerous to human health
                 if not all necessary precautionary measures are taken. Moreover, the type and composition of
                 pesticides used for post-harvest treatment of stored products is constantly monitored and
                 changed due to environmental and safety concerns and consumer demand for residue-free food
                 (Phillips and Throne, 2010). Consumer perspective on this is of growing interest, motivating
                 firms to use alternative, "green" disinfestation methods. This survey aims to identify and
                 analyze consumers’ awareness and perceptions on this topic, focusing on the use of alternative
                 post-harvest disinfestation methods (i.e. precision applications with the use of phosphine,
                 diatomaceous earth, and modified nitrogen atmosphere). For this survey a questionnaire was
                 developed and answered on a national level in Greece of a sample of 1,000 interviewees. At
                 the same time, the willingness to buy agricultural foods being treated with alternative
                 disinfestation methods mentioned above was assessed. Principal Component Analysis results
                 verify that application of "green" disinfestation methods in food and feed post-harvest
                 protocols is a good practice, mitigating risks for human health. It is also noteworthy to be
                 mentioned that the awareness level of consumers on disinfestation protocols is relatively low,
                 as it was expected to be. More than 60% of participants would be willing to pay a premium
                 price for consuming food, stored in a place where green disinfection methods are applied.
                 However, more than half of consumers state that "food and feed stored in a place where 'green'
                 disinfestation methods are used are more expensive". The intention of Greek consumers to buy
                 food being disinfected without the use of chemicals is very high, while the vast majority of
                 them claim that they would encourage their friends to follow the same practice.
1
                 Keywords
                 Food storage, Consumer behavior, Green disinsectisation methods, Health Belief Model,
                 Principal Component Analysis

Proceedings of HAICTA 2022, September 22–25, 2022, Athens, Greece
EMAIL: chkleisiari@uth.gr (A. 1); lkyrgiakos@uth.gr (A. 2); giorgoskleftodimos@gmail.com (A. 3); agrafiot@uth.gr (A. 4);
elampiri@uth.gr (A. 5); gvlontzos@uth.gr (A. 6); athanassiou@uth.gr (A. 7); d.kateris@certh.gr (A. 8); d.bochtis@certh.gr (A. 9)
ORCID: 0000-0002-0814-2842 (A. 1); 0000-0002-5042-6267 (A. 2); 0000-0003-2134-3582 (A. 3); 0000-0001-5359-164X (A. 4);
0000-0001-8142-0880 (A. 5); 0000-0002-0735-2274 (A. 6); 0000-0001-6578-4019 (A. 7); 0000-0002-5731-9472 (A. 8);
0000-0002-7058-5986 (A. 9)
              ©️ 2022 Copyright for this paper by its authors.
              Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
              CEUR Workshop Proceedings (CEUR-WS.org)




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Acknowledgements
This research was carried out as part of the project «PrecisionFEEDProtect: Precision
protection of stored feed from entomological infestations using innovative technologies»
(Project code: ΚΜΡ6-0077613) under the framework of the Action «Investment Plans of
Innovation» of the Operational Program «Central Macedonia 2014 2020», that is co-funded by
the European Regional Development Fund and Greece.




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