Exploring the Influence of Quality and Safety on Consumers’ Food Purchase Decisions in Botswana

The main purpose of this research was to gain some exploratory insights into how important food quality and safety issues were in influencing Botswana customers’ food purchase decisions. A cross-sectional descriptive research design utilising a structured questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample of 150 respondents who reside in Gaborone, Botswana in January 2011. The study found that in defining quality and safety of food, consumers used the same attributes thus resulting in an overlap in definitions of the two concepts. It also revealed that both food quality and safety were considered important by consumers. Consumers also perceived a relationship between quality and safety as they believed the two to be related. The implication from this research is that, consumers in developing countries such as Botswana also have concerns regarding food quality and safety and that the two concepts are important in their daily food choices.