Understanding intentional food contamination attitudes: applying Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior to a sample of fruit and vegetable industry workers

As a way of understanding the potential antecedents of intentional acts of food contamination, a framework that employs tenets of Ajzen’s (1985) Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was utilized to assess employees’ attitudes about committing such acts. In a sample of 123 employees from various links along a fruit and vegetable industry supply chain between Mexico and the United States, we found industry commitment and moral norm to be antecedents to attitudes toward intentional food contamination. We also found that both perceived behavioural controls (i.e. security measures) and attitude toward intentional food contamination positively related to intention to contaminate food. The value of applying the TPB model to this context is discussed.