0023-6152

AA00697606

7340483

Local milk production in Afghanistan faces significant challenges in meeting the growing consumer demand, leading to a heavy reliance on imported dairy products. Recent efforts have been initiated to improve local dairy production by establishing dairy cooperatives, collection centers, and dairy unions. These efforts aim to address the substantial gap between local milk supply and consumer demand, which has resulted in the emergence of local raw milk businesses across the country. Raw milk refers to the milk that has not been pasteurized and homogenized. The majority of dairy products in Afghanistan consist of raw, unpasteurized milk and traditional fermented items. These products are mainly distributed through small-scale and informal channels that do not employ cold chains. Afghanistan’s dairy sector faces significant food safety challenges that pose health risks to consumers and compromise the integrity of dairy products. Studies on consumers’ safety perceptions of milk in Afghanistan are limited, despite its importance in the diet and economy. The current studies have focused on the quality and objective understanding of dairy product safety issues, such as physicochemical properties and contamination levels while neglecting to explore consumer concerns regarding food safety. Therefore, this study is conducted to examine consumer perceptions of safety regarding locally sourced raw milk in Paktia, Afghanistan. Based on a sample of 230 consumers in the rural and urban areas, we employed ordered logistic regression modeling. The results show that socio–demographic factors significantly influence consumers’ safety perceptions regarding local raw milk. The findings suggest that addressing concerns raised by consumers regarding food safety—particularly among older populations, larger households, and packaged milk users—could help build trust in local dairy products.