Rutgers spinach report

I thought Rutgers was most famous for beating my alma mater K-State in the Texas Bowl, but as it turns out they do some heavy lifting on food research topics as well. Here is the link to the Rutgers Food Policy Institute home page which shows the PDF for the spinach study.

Here are some excerpts from the study:


PRIOR TO THE SPINACH RECALL
Almost half of all Americans ate spinach prior to the recall Nearly half of Americans (48%) report that they ate fresh spinach before the recall and most also did so relatively frequently. More than one-in-five (22%) of those who said they ate fresh spinach reported that they did so “a few times a week,” 18% did so “once a week,” 29% “a few times a month,” and 14% reported eating spinach “once a month.” The remainder said they ate fresh spinach ‘a few times a year’ (14%), ‘less than a few times a year’ (2%) or ‘only a few times in their life’ (1%). Thus, most (83%) of those who ate spinach before the recall did so at least once a month, and 40% did so at least once a week. Americans with more education (B= 1.491; CI=1.332, 1.669) and higher incomes (B= 1.114; CI=1.045, 1.188) were more likely to report having eaten fresh spinach before the recall than those with less education or lower incomes. However, there were no significant differences in age, race, or gender between those who reported that they did and did not eat spinach before the recall.

DURING THE RECALL
Americans’ awareness of the spinach recall was high The majority of Americans (87%) reported they were aware of the spinach recall. More than half (56%) of Americans knew that there had been a recent food recall and were able to volunteer that it had been a recall involving spinach. An additional one-third (31%) reported being aware of the spinach recall when asked specifically if they had heard about it. Only 13% of Americans said they were unaware of the spinach recall when asked specifically about it. Moreover, as shown in Figure 1, more than half (52%) of Americans report having heard “a lot” or ”a great deal” about the spinach recall and 86% report having heard at least “a little” about it.

Americans wanted to know how the contamination happened, what was affected, and when it would be safe to eat spinach again Those who were aware of the recall were asked what questions they had when they first heard about it. The responses to this open-ended question were then categorized based on content. Table 2 shows that 446 respondents (43%) of those who had heard of the recall volunteered one or more responses and that the majority of their questions focused on how the contamination happened, what products had been affected, and when the problem might end.