August 16, 1999 - Survey: Consumers Concerned About Food Safety

by Bryan Salvage

Just how important is food safety to American consumers? Fueled by many reported food contamination incidents in recent years, food safety has surpassed crime prevention and water quality as a top issue with American consumers.

This claim is among the findings of the 1998 Food Issues Survey of consumers and editors who cover food issues that was conducted by CMF&Z, a Young and Rubicam affiliate. This is the sixth consecutive survey conducted and the second consecutive study that was cosponsored by the International Food Safety Council, a restaurant and foodservice industry coalition.

There is a significant gap between food editors' perceptions and public attitudes toward the importance of food safety, according to the survey. Eighty-nine percent of consumers surveyed identified food safety as very important, placing food safety at the top of the list of issues that includes drinking water safety, crime prevention, health and nutrition, environmental protection, and recycling. Editors, however, ranked food safety's importance only fourth behind health and nutrition, crime prevention and the quality of drinking water. Only 54 percent of the food editors cited food safety as very important to their readers.

Most editors (55 percent) said food-safety problems such as food poisonings, E-coli and food-borne illnesses are largely responsible for growing consumer concerns. Consumers attributed their increased concern to their growing awareness of food-safety issues and increased media coverage. The survey indicated that the media are widely perceived as credible on food issues--80 percent of the consumers questioned said they believe at least half of the media stories they see or hear relating to food safety.

The survey also showed that 76 percent of consumers had recently seen or heard news accounts of food issues. Consumers cited E. coli, hepatitis, pesticide residues, salmonella and food-handling as issues of greatest concern, and more than three-fourth of those surveyed said they would take action on the basis of negative media stories relating to those issues.

"The consumer responses clearly point to numerous widely reported food scares," said Cindy Jordan, vice president of planning and development, and director of CMF&Z's Food Practice Group. "This demonstrates the powerful role the media play not only in increasing awareness of these issues but also in shaping public opinion.

"The findings illustrate the importance for food processors and retailers to act quickly to resolve food-safety issues and to work with the media to inform their customers of the steps they take to assure food safety," she added.

The survey questioned editors and the general public about a variety of food issues. The survey was conducted via phone interviews with 150 editors who represented newspapers from throughout the United States with circulation of from less than 25,000 to more than 100,000. In addition, the survey contacted a random sample of 150 members of the general public. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 8 percentage points.

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