Business and public health impacts of food safety upgrading among pork vendors in Vietnam

Last registered on June 07, 2024

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Business and public health impacts of food safety upgrading among pork vendors in Vietnam
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0012244
Initial registration date
October 22, 2023

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
November 01, 2023, 2:38 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated
June 07, 2024, 2:17 PM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
IFPRI

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
IFPRI
PI Affiliation
IFPRI
PI Affiliation
ILRI
PI Affiliation
ILRI
PI Affiliation
ILRI
PI Affiliation
ILRI
PI Affiliation
ILRI

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2023-10-23
End date
2024-08-15
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
We test the impact of a training and voluntary food safety grading intervention on food safety practices and outcomes among pork vendors in 68 traditional wet markets in Vietnam.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Ambler, Kate et al. 2024. "Business and public health impacts of food safety upgrading among pork vendors in Vietnam." AEA RCT Registry. June 07. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.12244-1.1
Sponsors & Partners

Sponsors

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Training of pork vendors in traditional wet markets; enrollment of interested vendors in a voluntary food safety grading program; promotion of the grading program to consumers in these markets.
Intervention (Hidden)
All vendors in treatment markets (including vendors not selected to participate in the study) will be invited to a training session in which they are given instruction on good food hygiene practices. At the training, 50% of study vendors in the market (up to five vendors) will be drawn for assignment to the ‘training + subsidy’ (T2) sub-treatment. In addition to training, T2 vendors will also receive free supplies (e.g., easy to clean surfaces, bleach, handwashing stations) to facilitate the practices on which they have been trained. The remaining 50% of vendors (up to 5) in each T market will be assigned to receive ‘training only’ (hereafter referred to as T1). Provision of free materials to a subset of vendors is intended to induce experimental variation in food ratings within T markets.
Vendors who have completed training will be given an opportunity to enroll in a voluntary food safety grading program. Within two weeks of the training session, a surveillance team employed through the study will visit each of the vendors enrolled in the program to observe their food safety practices. Vendors will not be informed of surveillance visits ahead of time, and surveillance officers will not initially identify themselves to vendors, so that vendors' routine practices can be observed. Vendors will be assigned a food safety grade based on the observations of the surveillance team and given signage indicating this grade. After the initial surveillance round, each treatment market will receive one to two randomly timed surveillance visits per month, during which a team of two surveillance officers will each visit two randomly selected vendors (with replacement each month) simultaneously. Vendors’ safety ratings will be updated according to the results.
Intervention Start Date
2023-10-23
Intervention End Date
2024-05-15

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Total bacteria count (logCFU/g)
Salmonella (presence/absence)
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Index of hygiene practices
Consumers choose vendor based on food safety
Expenditure of vendors on food-safety related inputs
Value of pork sales per hour (as a correlate of hygiene practice index in T vs. C markets)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
Consumers' stated reason for selecting vendor is one of: food safety, cleanliness, or high food safety rating
Value of pork sales per hour: natural logarithm of the value of pork sales per hour, based on reported purchase amount at the start of the day, time of the end-of-day vendor interview, and observed pork remaining at the end-of-day interview
Index of hygiene practices: standardized inverse-covariance weighted average (Anderson, 2008)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
68 pork markets will be randomized to Treatment or Control status. 10 vendors will be enrolled in the study in each Treatment market, 5 vendors will be enrolled in each Control market. A baseline survey will be conducted in each market. Intervention activities will commence in Treatment markets within a week of the baseline survey. Surveillance visits and updating of food safety grades will continue for 3 months. Follow-up data collection will be conducted approximately 3 months after baseline data collection. A second follow-up round of data collection may be conducted after an additional 3 months, subject to funding availability.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Market-level treatment assignment: in office by a computer
Vendor-level treatment assignment: via public drawing in Treatment markets, at the end of the training session
Randomization Unit
Market (for training and offer of enrollment in food safety grading program)
Vendor (for provision of equipment, within Treatment markets)
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
68 markets
Sample size: planned number of observations
510 vendors up to 1020 consumers (15 per market)
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
34 markets Treatment, 34 markets Control
170 vendors T1, 170 vendors T2, 170 vendors Control
510 consumers Treatment, 510 Consumers Control
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
International Food Policy Research Institute Institutional Review Board
IRB Approval Date
2022-08-31
IRB Approval Number
MTID-22-0846
IRB Name
ILRI Institutional Research Ethics Committee
IRB Approval Date
2023-02-14
IRB Approval Number
ILRI-IREC2022-55
IRB Name
Hanoi University of Public Health
IRB Approval Date
2022-12-22
IRB Approval Number
458/2022/TYCC-HD3
Analysis Plan

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Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials