The study investigated attitude towards artificial fruit ripening with chemical agents among fruit consumers in Rivers State. The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional survey design. Three research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. A sample size of 1050 fruit consumers was drawn from different communities in Rivers East Senatorial District of the state using multi-stage sampling procedures. A validated self-structured questionnaire titled ‘Consumers’ Attitude towards Artificial Fruit Ripening’ with inter-scale reliability co-efficient of 0.80 was used as instrument for data collection. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions, while inferential statistics of Analysis of Variance was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 alpha level. The results of the study showed that the fruit consumers displayed positive attitude towards artificially ripened fruits with a cluster mean of 2.55; SD:1.01; and the demographic variables of age and level of education had significant influence on their attitude. The study therefore recommended among others that, health educators and public health workers should liaise with Rivers State Ministry of Information and Communication to engage in massive education and awareness campaign on the need to eat healthy fruits, and avoid consumption of fruits ripened or suspected to be ripened with chemically fruit-ripening agents.

Attitude, Consumers, Artificial Fruit Ripening

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