Estimation of the Impact of Foodborne Salmonellosis on Consumer Well-Being in Hungary.

In Hungary, salmonellosis is one of the most frequent foodborne illnesses. According to our estimation, based on a representative consumer survey with 1001 respondents, the annual number of salmonellosis cases exceeded 90,000, which was 18 times higher than the officially reported data. Salmonellosis infections impose significant direct and indirect costs to the health care system, to companies (as employers) and to households. This study focused on the cost to households by analysing well-being losses due to Salmonella infections, for which the WTP (willingness-to-pay) method was used. WTP measures the cost that an individual would pay to avoid an undesirable harm or health outcome. For estimating WTP, 456 respondents gave quantifiable answers. The average WTP to avoid salmonellosis was 86.3 EUR. Based on this data, the total consumer well-being loss could be estimated to be about 7.87 million EUR per year in Hungary. These results indicate that consumers' well-being losses alone would necessitate further interventions for Salmonella reduction.

Citation

Ágnes Vajda, László Ózsvári, Dávid Szakos, Gyula Kasza. Estimation of the Impact of Foodborne Salmonellosis on Consumer Well-Being in Hungary. International journal of environmental research and public health. 2021 Sep 27;18(19)

Mesh Tags

PMID: 34639433

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