Gallup rates consumer confidence

This link, passed on by Doug Powell of K-State's Food Safety Network, summarizes finding of a Gallup study on consumer reaction to food safety stories in the past year. From the story:

Most commonly, a majority of Americans -- 62% -- say they have avoided buying certain brands or types of food within the past year as a direct result of a government food safety advisory or product recall. Four in ten say such advisories or recalls have compelled them to discard food or return it to the store and roughly one-quarter say they worried that something they ate may have been contaminated. Overall, 71% of Americans report having one or more of these experiences in the past year.

TK: Four in ten compelled to discard food or return it to the store is higher than I would have guessed.
Continuing from the Gallup story:

Trend questions updated on this year's Consumption Habits survey suggest Americans have not reached a tipping point with food safety concerns. Most Americans continue to express confidence in the safety of food in the nation's grocery stores and restaurants, as well as in the federal agencies responsible for ensuring the safety of the food supply. However, at present, that confidence tends to be on the low side of the range Gallup has seen over the past decade.
The percentage of Americans saying they have a great deal or fair amount of confidence in the federal government to ensure the safety of the food supply is currently 71%, significantly lower than the previous low of 76% recorded a year ago as well as the high point of 85% in 2004.

TK: Put another way, the confidence of Americans in the federal government's oversight of food safety is 17% lower than in 2004, a rapid descent by any measure.

At 82%, current confidence in the food available at grocery stores is on the low end of the range of 80% to 89% found since 1999. It was similarly low, at 80% and 81% from 1999-2001, but higher from July 2001 through December 2006.
At 73%, current confidence in the safety of restaurant food is in the middle of the range of 68% to 77% seen for this measure since 1999.

TK: Based on these numbers, supermarkets need to do a better job of selling their food safety diligence to consumers.
Continuing...

Given Americans' self-reported attention to food-related news, Americans neither take the safety of the nation's food supply for granted, nor are they losing sleep over it. Nearly two-thirds of the public indicates paying at least a fair amount of attention to "the food warnings and nutritional recommendations" in the news, but this includes only 28% paying "a lot" of attention.
Public attention to food warnings and recommendations has fluctuated over the years, possibly a reflection of the timing of the polls relative food-related issues in the news. Current attention is a bit lower than a year ago and higher than two years ago, but similar to where it was in 1989.

TK: As with the public, I believe reporters paying fluctuating attention to food safety stories. Food safety alert fatigue may cause some stories to be under reported, to the detriment of the consuming public.