Consumer’s Hygiene Vegetable Consumption Behavior in Ban Chien Subdistrict of Chinat Province

Abstract

The objectives of this research were to 1) study the consumer's hygiene vegetable consumption behaviors in Ban Chien Subdistrict, Han ka District, Chainat Province 2) compare the opinions of general vegetable consumers and hygiene vegetable consumers in Ban Chien Subdistrict, Han ka District, Chainat Province, and 3) examine the relationship between socio-demographic factors and factors considered when buying hygiene vegetables in the context of consumer's hygiene vegetable consumption behaviors in Ban Chien Subdistrict, Han ka District, Chainat Province. A questionnaire was used as a research instrument to gather data from a sample group of 385 individuals residing in 12 villages of Ban Chien Subdistrict. Stratified sampling was employed, with the sampling proportion determined by the population size of each village according to Taro Yamane’s formula. Random selection was conducted using accidental sampling.

The results revealed that 1) firstly, when considering consumers' hygiene vegetable consumption behaviors, it was found that the major characteristic prioritized by consumers when buying vegetables was cleanliness. Vegetables were mostly washed before consumption with clean water. Cleanliness was identified as the determinant in purchasing such vegetables. The top 5 hygiene vegetables commonly bought in Ban Chien were cucumber, chili, yard-long beans, eggplant, and kale, respectively. 2) It was found that, opinions of general vegetable consumers and hygiene vegetable consumers were significantly different at a significance level of .05 in all aspects except for safety without any modification and genetic modification. And 3) Concerning the relationship between socio-demographic factors and factors to consider when buying hygiene vegetables in the context of consumer's hygiene vegetable consumption behavior in Ban Chien Subdistrict, Han ka District, Chainat Province, the study revealed a significant relationship between psychological factors and consumers' hygiene vegetable consumption behavior. This relationship could be observed in terms of hygiene vegetables regularly purchased (x² = 21.685, p = .041) and reasons for buying hygiene vegetables (x² = 26. 881, p = .003) at a statistical significance level of .05.