Consumer safety protection: Exploring the motives and practices ofMalaysian small food manufacturers

The responsibility of protecting consumer well-being has a lot to do with product manufacturers. This study examined the motives and practices of selected small scale food manufacturers within the ambit of consumer protection issue. In-depth interviews were conducted involving four small scale food manufacturers selected by purposive sampling technique. Their responses were analyzed thematically. Overall the findings indicated that manufacturers drive for protecting consumer was dominated by the caveat emptor perspective. Three themes of manufacturer motives for enacting consumer protection were identified, namely, to comply with regulatory requirements issued by authorities, to ensure quality final products, and the manufacturer’s own personal ethical principle. Protection practices adopted by manufacturers were found to consist of superior and safe raw ingredients, compliance with all the prevailing rules and regulations pertaining to best practices in manufacturing practices, automation, and obtaining specified formal approvals and verifications from recognised authorized such as Jakim and the Ministry of Health. Protection via soft laws seemed rather limited as most respondents were unprepared with the relevant SOPs to manage damages inflicted on consumers from the use of their products.