Food contamination incidents: what do consumers seek online? Who cares?

Consumers can play an active role in managing their health during food contamination incidents. With the popularity of the internet, consumers may seek online information to minimize health risks associated with the incidents. This study examines information demand and supply for consumers' online-information seeking by investigating the search queries commonly used by consumers during the incidents and returned first page search results. We use a stage of change model to frame our hypotheses about information demand and stakeholder and agenda setting theories to frame our hypotheses about information supply. Results show that consumers' information seeking may progress through stages of precontemplation (seeking no special information), contemplation (seeking information related to the facts of the incidents), preparation and action (seeking information related to safety precautions and practices), and maintenance and termination (seeking no special information). Mainstream news media play the most important role in providing online information related to the facts of the incidents during the contemplation stage of consumers' information seeking. Online citizen journalism is the major online source for information related to safety precautions and practices during the preparation and action stage of information seeking. A diversity of other stakeholders also provide online information related to the incidents but are not primary information sources for consumers. We suggest that stakeholders, especially those who are responsible for providing accurate and timely information to consumers such as government agencies, establish online marketing strategies to make their information more accessible by consumers. Copyright (c) 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.