The unintended effects of tamper-evident food closures

Restaurant-to-consumer food delivery has experienced disruption with the growth of third-party services such as DoorDash and Uber Eats. However, this platform-to-consumer method introduces increased opportunities for tampering contamination due to additional touchpoints in process. To mitigate these concerns, more restaurants are implementing tamper-evident closures seals attached containers used items. Drawing on signaling theory, we examine effect context through two experimental studies a focus group. Our results revealed negative willingness pay lowered quality evaluations, suggesting seal sends signals rather than intended message safety. This appears robust both beverages. We also demonstrate that consumers’ safety risk perception (FSRP) acts boundary condition, attenuating indirect high-FSRP consumers. • Significant pay. Food evaluations mediate Results replicated across live lab (N Study 1 =82; N 2 =243) experiments. attenuates