Doctoral Dissertation Research in DRMS: Consumers' decisions about tradeoffs between food safety and quality: an experimental auction analysis of artisanal cheese

这项研究考察了个人如何在健康风险和产品质量之间做出权衡选择。在奶酪制作过程中，牛奶的巴氏灭菌可以消灭致病的致病菌和有益细菌，这些有益细菌有助于陈年奶酪的成熟和风味的发展。本研究通过分析产品属性的个人享乐偏好评级、实验拍卖和美国手工奶酪市场零售数据的享乐价格分析等方法，研究消费者对细菌和相关风险的态度，以及消费者对不同类型的食品安全和质量信息的反应。独特的产品环境为研究健康风险和生产质量变量之间比以往环境所允许的更持续的权衡提供了机会。这项研究为粮食和农业政策制定者提供了有用的信息。有人提议要求奶酪制造商减少产品中的细菌，以降低健康风险，但这些新要求也可能降低消费者心目中的产品质量。手工奶酪的生产者来自各种各样的背景，是农业经济中一个快速增长的部门的一部分，重点是当地生产、增值和农民市场。

The research examines how individuals make choices involving tradeoffs between health risk and product quality. In cheesemaking, pasteurization of milk can eradicate pathogenic bacteria that can cause illness as well as beneficial bacteria, which contribute to ripening and flavor development in aged cheese. This research studies consumers' attitudes toward bacteria and associated risk and how consumers respond to different types of information about food safety and quality through a combination of methods including analyzing individual hedonic preference rating of product attributes, experimental auctions, and hedonic price analysis of retail data in the market for artisan cheese in the US. The unique product context provides an opportunity to study a more continuous tradeoff between the variables of health risk and production quality than prior contexts have allowed. This research generates information useful for food and agriculture policymakers. There are proposals to require cheesemakers to reduce bacteria in their products in order to reduce health risks, but these new requirements might also reduce the quality of the products in the minds of consumers. Producers of artisenal cheeses come from a wide diversity of backgrounds and are part of a fast growing sector of the agricultural economy focusing on local production, value addition and farmers markets.