Perceptions about food safety

IBM conducted a survey of adult grocery shoppers (who shop once a month or more) in the 10 largest US cities during June 2009 (Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, and Washington, DC). The study is intended to gather grocery shoppers’ opinions about food safety issues.

The IBM study reveals that less than 20% of consumers trust food companies to develop and sell food products that are safe and healthy for themselves and their families. The study also shows that 60% of consumers are concerned about the safety of food they purchase, and 63% are knowledgeable about the content of the food they buy.

The survey of 1000 consumers in the 10 largest cities nationwide shows that consumers are increasingly wary of the safety of food purchased at grocery stores, and their confidence in - and trust of - food retailers, manufacturers and grocers is declining. 

The debilitating impact of recalls

83% of respondents were able to name a food product that was recalled in the past two years due to contamination or other safety concerns. Nearly half of survey respondents - 46% - named peanut butter, the staple of school lunches for children across the nation, as the most recognisable recall. Spinach came in a distant second, with 15% awareness more than two years after the incident where E. coli in bagged spinach sickened 204 people in 26 states, killing three. 

Consumers are proving to be extra cautious in purchasing food products after a recall. 49% of the respondents would be less likely to purchase a food product again of it was recalled due to contamination. 63% of respondents confirmed they would not buy the food until the source of contamination had been found and addressed. Meanwhile, 8% of respondents said they would never purchase the food again, even after the source of contamination was found and addressed. 

These findings underscore how the rise in recalls and contamination has significantly eroded consumer confidence in food and product safety, as well as with the companies that manufacture and distribute these products. 

Changing consumer behaviours

63% of respondents report they have purposefully changed their grocery shopping behaviour in the past two years because they wanted better value for their money. And almost half have changed shopping behaviour to access fresher foods (45%) or better quality foods (43%). 

“Especially in today’s economy, if consumers are going to pay a little extra for a branded or organic product, they want to be assured that they’re paying for something different and better quality,” said Guy Blissett, Consumer Products Leader, IBM Institute for Business Value. “Across the board, consumers are demanding transparency and more information about the food they purchase to ensure their safety and that of their families. As the government, industry associations, retailers and manufacturers work through the operational issues associated with ensuring food safety, we can each become more aware and take greater responsibility for the food we purchase.” 

Where is my food from?

The survey found that over the past two years, consumer appetite for information about food products increased. 77% of consumers want more information about the content of the food products they purchase and 76% would like more information about its origin. 74% are willing to dig deeper and seek more data about how the food products are grown, processed and manufactured. Despite industry efforts to keep consumers informed with more detailed product information, there’s still a significant gap between consumer expectations and what retailers/manufacturers are providing. 

The survey also found that consumers are spending more time poring over food labels to know which ingredients were used, questioning supermarkets and product manufacturers about product detail, paying closer attention to expiration dates and doing more in-depth background checks on specific food brands and their origin. This will have an even bigger impact as the younger, more internet-savvy generation of consumers evolve into being the primary purchasers of groceries. 

Are food retailers and manufacturers looking out for me?

55% of respondents trust food manufacturers when handling a recall in the event that a food product is contaminated, indicating a decrease in their level of trust over the past two years. Meanwhile, 72% said they trust the store where they buy groceries to properly handle food product contamination recalls. 

57% of consumers report they’ve stopped purchasing certain foods, even for a short time, within the past two years due to safety considerations. 

USDA/FDA confusion

An estimated 76 million people in the US get sick every year with foodborne illness and 5000 die, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The USDA’s Economic Research Service has estimated the economic costs of hospitalisations, lost productivity and death from the five most common pathogens as US$6.9 billion in 2000.

In the US, federal food safety efforts are hampered by inadequate funding and confusion caused by the way 100-year-old food safety laws and their accompanying bureaucracies have evolved.

The key US food safety laws are a century old and were not designed to deal with modern issues such as escalating imports, bioterrorism or tainted produce.

Federal food safety expenditures are not distributed evenly cross all high-risk food, but instead are concentrated on meat and poultry products regulated by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). Historically, while USDA regulates one-fifth of the food supply causing 27% of outbreaks, its food safety appropriations have been twice that given to the Food & Drug Administration (FDA).

USDA has the resources to inspect meat and poultry plants daily, as required by law. In contrast, FDA, which regulated 80% of the food supply, inspects food facilities it oversees on average just once every 10 years. In essence, the FDA responds to crises after they occur rather than preventing them.

Regulating for safer food

In 1999, the UK reformed its food safety program to establish a single Food Standards Agency which has proved effective in reducing the incidence of foodborne illness and building public confidence.

Foodborne illnesses declined 18% within the first three years of the new agency, with a reduction from 37% to 6% in the occurrence of eggs and poultry contaminated with Salmonella. Also, according to Krebs, public confidence in the safety of the food supply rose from 44% to 60%.

For more information, please visit: http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/food.