Consumers less confident about food safety in plants
Consumers are less confident than they were a year ago about the ability of meat and poultry packers to ensure food safety, in spite of major efforts to bolster testing and inspection of their products, according to the CMF&Z Marketing Communications' Eighth Annual Food Safety Survey.
The survey, which measures consumer attitudes on a wide range of food safety issues, indicates that about one-third (32 percent) of consumers believe packers are doing an excellent job of ensuring a safe food supply -- down from 38 percent a year ago. By comparison, farmers and supermarkets were rated as doing an excellent job of ensuring food safety by 67 percent and 62 percent of respondents, respectively.