CHICAGO -- Consumers are relying on themselves, more than on retailers, manufacturers or the government, to ensure the food they buy is safe to eat, according to survey results presented during the Speaks '98 session at the Food Marketing Institute Show here.
But in the precautionary areas that matter most -- washing hands and surfaces, washing food, refrigerating promptly, keeping food separate and cooking properly -- these same consumers, by their own admission, earn a failing grade.
"If this were your store," Michael Sansolo, the FMI's senior vice president, said of the average consumer's kitchen, "the health department would shut you down."
Less than 30% of all consumers say they know how to cook food properly, Sansolo said. Only 23% say they wash vegetables, and a mere 19% say they refrigerate their food promptly. Just 11% say they separate different foods to prevent cross-contamination.
The good news for the industry, Sansolo said, is that consumers think supermarkets do a good job where food safety is concerned.
According to the FMI's studies, more consumers think food-safety mishaps are caused by processors (39%) than by restaurants (20%), themselves (15%), transporters of food (12%), and supermarkets (6%). Only farms (4%) fared better in the public's opinion.
Food safety, though, is a problem for the entire supply chain as well as for consumers, Sansolo said. "There is no second best on food safety."
Sansolo and, in a videotaped presentation, Joel Johnson of Hormel Foods Corp., Austin, Minn., and the American Meat Institute, Arlington, Va., highlighted a joint FMI-AMI consumer-education initiative, Fight Bac. The campaign features a nasty little cartoon character, Bac, and its own Web site, www.fightbac.org.
"Fight Bac is a great program," Johnson said. "It's to communicate to consumers the fact that they have a real responsibility for the safety of the food that they serve their families.
"We've got to work hand in glove in terms of making our food supply ever safer, because the consumer's expectations continue to rise, as they should. And we are delivering an ever safer product and will continue to do so in the future."
Both Johnson and Sansolo emphasized that as irradiation has gained acceptance from scientists and regulators, it has earned credibility with consumers too, which is a positive development.
But while consumers are in favor of irradiation if it helps prevent contamination or insect infestation, they do not support it if it is used to cut corners on standards, Sansolo said.
