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resulted in 600 million (95% uncertainty interval 420 to 960
million) foodborne illnesses and 420,000 (95% uncertainty
interval 310,000 to 600,000) deaths globally, with a higher
burden observed among persons in the world's low-income
territories (26, 48). Meat in its raw form is shelf unstable
because it is rich in several nutrients that promote microbial
growth (51). Nonadherence to standard hygiene protocols,
improper processing and storage of meat, poor modes
of transportation, and poor methods of meat sales have
important safety implications for retail meat. Undoubtedly,
raw meats can transmit pathogens carried by food animals
slaughtered for consumption. Foodborne illnesses are usually
underreported, especially in developing countries where the
trace-back mechanism is extremely poor. Beef sold through
retail channels in developing countries such as Nigeria suffers
significant physical handling and contact with numerous
pathogens (46). Biological contamination of meat, especially
by pathogenic bacteria, is the main cause of foodborne
diseases (48). This results in immediate consumer and public
health burdens of varying degrees of severity and sometimes
leads to chronic disease (43).
Consumer risk perception of meat safety reflects the
uncertainty a consumer has when purchasing a particular
product. Consumers' ethical concerns and preferences for
certain food products and production methods can affect risk
perceptions and impact their choice of products (42). Also,
consumer food safety risk perception is an essential indicator
of the food quality management system (38). Risk perception
may vary among individuals because it is guided by an array
of important considerations, for example, culture, traditions,
customs, taste, nutrition, product attributes, safety, and price.
These play significant roles and are crucial determinants of
meat preferences among consumers globally (22, 23, 37).
Thus, consumers' habits and attitudes toward food safety
should be taken into consideration in food safety. With
the increasing concerns about food safety, consumers tend
to shift to foods with less perceived risk, causing needless
precautions and loss of reliance on some food products (19).
Recently, consumers' needs, awareness, and expectations
in developing economies are increasing owing to a rise in
population and urbanization and to an increase in preferences
for different meat types. Thus, the demand for wholesome meat
and meat products is growing, making meat safety an important
issue among consumers and the public (36). Despite the
dwindling of consumer confidence in food products, research
in Nigeria has focused mainly on bacteriological contamination
of retail meat (4, 6, 12) and has not examined consumers'
perception of meat safety. Note that there has been little or no
scientific research to investigate consumers' meat consumption
habits and risk perception in the face of growing consumer
concern about retail meat safety. Therefore, this study surveys
consumers' attitudes and risk perception of retail meat safety; it
also evaluates the hygiene practices associated with retail meat
sold to consumers within the Ilorin metropolis in Nigeria.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Study area
This investigation was carried out at various randomly
selected major retail meat outlets (n = 7) located within
the Ilorin metropolis. Ilorin-latitude 8.4799°N, 4.5418°E,
320 m above sea level-is in the north central region of
Nigeria. Ilorin, a nodal metropolis with approximately
814,192 inhabitants, is the 11th most populous capital in
Nigeria (50). An average of 225 cattle are processed daily in
the slaughterhouses within the Ilorin metropolis (29). The
metropolis also has a high number of retail meat outlets, and
a significant number of consumers have ready access to these
retail meat locations during meat purchases.
Assessment of consumers' attitude and risk perception
of retail meat safety in Ilorin
Study design and sample size
A questionnaire-based cross-sectional survey targeted
at meat consumers (respondents) from March 2019 to
June 2019 was carried out. In this survey, we defined meat
consumers as adult permanent residents who purchased and
consumed meat at retail outlets within the city in the last 3
months. Nonresidents and vegetarians were excluded from
this study. The formula, n = 1.962 ∙ Pr (1 − Pr)/d2, was used
to approximate the sample size with the aid of Open Source
Epidemiologic Statistics for Public Health (OpenEpi) 2.3.1
software (13), where n is the calculated sample size and Pr
(expected proportion) was taken as 50%. The d (absolute
precision) was set at 6%. Therefore, at least 267 targeted
respondents were to be sampled across the Ilorin metropolis.
The Pr was set at 50% because, to our knowledge, there has
been no previous report on the proportion of meat consumers
expressing their perception about retail meat safety.
Questionnaire design, implementation, and data collection
The questionnaire was designed after a review of the
literature (1, 5, 8, 15, 17, 18, 31, 41). Close-ended questions
were utilized to reduce variations and disparity, to achieve
better precision, and to ease the rigor of data processing.
These questions were grouped into four sections: (i)
demographic information comprising variables such as
age, gender, religion, geopolitical zone of origin, minimum
household income, and current education status; (ii)
consumers' meat consumption habits, which included
questions about consumption frequency, type of meat
preferred, meat products preferred, and so on; and (iii)
consumers' risk perception, attitude, and reliance level, which
included 15 questions (Likert-type scale) about perceptions
on the safety of meat, foodborne illness from meat, risk of
meat consumption, drug residues in meat, safety along the
processing chain, and consumers' reliance on meat products.
The questionnaire was pretested on 10 meat purchasers at
a retail outlet for clarity and precision of questions, and the
feedback received was used before final administration (45).

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