Dive Brief:
- American consumers are most concerned about food safety, followed by affordability and nutritional value of the foods they buy, according to a new survey from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
- While many marketing campaigns focus on how food is made, such as locally grown, non-GMO, or without antibiotics, fewer than three out of 10 survey respondents know about or were concerned with topics like GMOs or antibiotics.
- Nearly three-quarters of Americans believe food safety should be of utmost importance to food and beverage producers.
Dive Insight:
"The disparities between how the public thinks food producers are performing and how they should perform were striking. Survey respondents said that food producers lack a focus on food safety and nutrition by 50 points, and sustainability, transparency and affordability by 40 points," Food Safety News reported.
With so many American consumers focusing on safety, the timing is right for food and beverage companies to now be faced with FSMA's preventive rules and other upcoming rules from the FDA that will govern some of these companies' safety protocols.
Consumers are also wary of companies, as health professionals and friends and family are instead consumers' go-to sources for information about food. Increased transparency could be helpful for these companies in gaining some of that trust from consumers.