This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 at 7:46am and is filed under Media and information, Meat, Labels, Agriculture, Food Production. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Guest post by Ann Bagel Storck. Reprint of her article in the Daily News section of Meatingplace.com
Ninety percent of consumers agree with the statement, “I trust the meat, poultry and fish my grocery store sells is safe,” according to the Food Marketing Institute’s U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends 2008 report, released last week.
They express less trust in the government: 79 percent agree with the statement, “I trust the U.S. Department of Agriculture to ensure that the food I purchase is safe.” Only 76 percent hold this view about the FDA, the survey says.
The report also covers consumers’ financial pressures and nutritional concerns. Economic worries are compelling Americans to cook at home more and eat less often at restaurants (71 percent). Consumers also are buying fewer luxury foods (67 percent) and more store-brand items (60 percent) and eating more leftovers (58 percent).
Meanwhile, 41 percent of shoppers say they are “very concerned” about the nutritional content of the foods they eat. When evaluating whether a food is nutritious, shoppers focus most on the fat content listed on the Nutrition Facts label, with more than half checking saturated fat, trans fat and total fat. More than four in 10 check the calorie count, look for whole grains and focus on the salt, sugar and cholesterol levels, FMI says.
May 14th, 2008 at 8:03am
I find it interesting that the consumers have confidence in the safety of the food from the supermarket, but less confidence in the USDA and FDA to ensure that safety.
Also of note is that consumers are far more concerned about the nutritional content of their food than they are about its safety. Considering we have far more oversight and guidelines for food safety ithan nutrtion, I believe the consumers are probably spot on.
May 15th, 2008 at 6:51pm
Dont you think that consumers assume food is nutritious, or at least that certain segments of food are nutritious? So - I know vegetables are nutritious, but if I’m buying Steak Ums I don’t really care about the nutritional comment.
May 15th, 2008 at 7:52pm
What i’ve learned from years of working with food producers, is that in the U.S. we have one of the safest food supplies in the world — but what’s more important is often how we HANDLE the food. For instance, if there is e.coli (extremely rare) in your ground beef, if you cook it to 160 degrees it will kill it. That’s why so many restaurants now note on their menus that raw or undercooked foods may be unsafe. There’s also the evil “cross contamination” that occurs when your cooking surfaces are’t clean, or you go back and forth between handling raw meats and cooked. I don’t know where we’re supposed to learn these things anymore, since home ec classes aren’t around anymore(remember trying to learn to sew? ok, i’ve just given my age away). USDA has some great resources here http://www.foodsafety.gov/
And since Memorial day is coming up and it’s time to get the grill out, here’s a great resource to check out handling meat and poultry safely http://www.meatsafety.org/
May 16th, 2008 at 8:07am
A few months ago, I was at the home of a woman who immigrated from China less than five years ago. As we were chatting in the kitchen, she remarked how funny Americans are about food safety — always washing this, washing that, throwing perfectly good food away on the CHANCE it might have gone off, or because the expiration date is past by a day or two. It was very interesting to hear her rant because it’s not just a safety issue but a cultural one. In China, most people don’t have the opportunity to treat food as a luxury - it’s food and you don’t waste it. While safety regulations are much more lax there, Chinese food is normally very well cooked, which helps a lot. As for me, straddling two cultures, I sometimes wonder how I get caught up in the food paranoia. I could save a lot of money if I were willing to buy less than absolutely fresh since, after all, I prefer Chinese food and if I served it every night, cooking the hell out of it, what’s the difference?