Hands off: Why human touch can create a food-safety blind spot

Consumers often assume that hand-prepared foods are fresher, higher quality and safer than factory-packaged alternatives, but a new study co-authored by a University of Massachusetts Amherst researcher suggests those assumptions may overlook important food-safety considerations—and that targeted messaging can significantly change purchase intentions.

The research reveals that consumers in randomized experiments strongly favored hand-sliced deli meat over prepackaged options until they learned about the higher food-safety risks associated with human handling. This “handmade food halo,” the study asserts, causes consumers to associate human involvement with positive product attributes that don’t necessarily exist.

“We noticed that consumers generally prefer handmade food or hand-sliced deli meat and automatically assume that it is more cared for, more authentic and has better quality,” says Lavi Peng, assistant professor of hospitality and tourism management in the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst. “But from a food-safety perspective, hand preparation doesn’t always mean the food is better.”

Peng, along with Heyao Yu and Anna S. Mattila of Pennsylvania State University and Tiffany S. Legendre of the University of Houston and César Ritz Colleges in Switzerland, conducted two online experiments in which 344 U.S. consumers evaluated deli meat. Participants rated how appealing they found the items and how likely they were to purchase them. The study is published in the International Journal of Hospitality Management.

In the first experiment, consumers viewed either hand-sliced deli meat prepared in a grocery store or factory-sliced, prepackaged meat. After rating the products, participants were presented with information explaining that, based on scientific research, meat sliced at a deli counter is associated with substantially higher listeriosis risk compared with prepackaged deli meat, partly because additional handling can increase opportunities for contamination. They then reevaluated the products.

The first step provided evidence of a handmade food halo. Participants rated hand-sliced deli meat as more appealing and reported greater willingness to buy it than prepackaged alternatives.

While researchers expected the food-safety information to shift preferences toward the prepackaged option, it only reduced consumers’ enthusiasm for the hand-sliced product.

“We thought that once we told participants that the hand-sliced deli meat might be risky, they would automatically perceive the safer option as more attractive,” Peng explains. “But that’s not the case. The appeal of the prepackaged option didn’t increase.”

In the second experiment, researchers repeated the process but redesigned the prepackaged product to include “human care” cues, including a farmer’s image and messaging highlighting careful preparation—eliciting a different response.

After receiving the food-safety information, participants rated the redesigned prepackaged product as significantly more appealing and reported greater purchase intentions than for either the standard-packaged or hand-sliced deli meat.

The findings suggest that consumers are not necessarily seeking human contact itself, but are instead responding to signals of care, attention and authenticity.

The study also offers practical lessons for marketers and public-health communicators: Snap decisions on food purchases are the norm.

“Consumers are unlikely to research every product before making a quick purchase,” Peng says. “That means safety information needs to be visible at the point of sale, but marketers also need to make the safer option feel appealing, trustworthy and cared for.”

Although the researchers focused on deli meat because of its well-documented safety risks, Peng says the findings may also apply to other ready-to-eat foods, including sushi and street foods, where consumers often associate handmade preparation with superior quality.