Two studies were conducted to investigate potential factors that affect consumers' perception towards home meal kits, and potential foodborne illness risks factors of home meal kits usage.
In study 1, a cross-sectional data collection was performed by using an online, self-administrated questionnaire. The participants who were the adults residing in U.S. were asked to answer the survey using the Likert scales. Multiple linear regression and moderation analyses were conducted to determine the associations between variables. The differences between HMK users and non-users were assessed by an independent t-test.
In study 2, three studies were developed to investigate the risks factors, including the (1) analysis of the available food safety-related information and delivery protocol collected from the vendors’ websites, (2) examination of the actual commercial HMK shipments, and (3) examination of the temperature changes inside the insulated HMK packages held under the average summer temperatures over time. Potential risk factors retrieved from the three studies were analyzed and the suggested guidelines to control those risks were identified.