Food Protection Trends - July/August 2019 - 318

does not apply to their purchases. Finally, consumers hold
a level of confidence in the current food supply chain that is
not built upon evidence, but rather on trust of a system that
may not have caused the consumer to be affected by recalls
in the past. This exploratory study used a survey that sought
to better understand the Canadian food recall system from
the consumer perspective. Questions were asked about four
broad themes: (1) General knowledge and awareness of food
recalls in Canada, (2) Consumer reaction to food recalls,
(3) Responsibility for food safety and (4) Demographic and
Socio-economic information.
Epidemiological surveillance systems enable public health
officials to implement strategies to address foodborne illness
in the current supply chain. Once an outbreak has been
detected, genetic testing for strains of a pathogen allows
for better tracking of the outbreak, ideally leading to the
source (13). The results can lead to food recalls that allow
for the mitigation of foodborne disease or illness. This
research suggests that an increase in the frequency of recalls
results in apathy, in which the consumer takes no action in
compliance with the recall, i.e., shows a condition of fatigue.
Therefore, the authors submit that recall fatigue results from
the cumulation of three key factors: information overload,
optimistic bias, and risk assessment.
As strategies to detect foodborne illness become increasingly sophisticated, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency
(CFIA) has correspondingly issued more food recalls. Figure
1 shows the increase in recalls issued by the CFIA between
1998 and 2017. It should be noted that the spike in recalls in

2012 was caused by the E. coli crisis at XL foods, where over
1.8 million kilograms of beef were recalled in 90 individual
recalls over a 26-day period in September and October of
that year (7). The general trend in the number of food recalls
issued by the CFIA is that they are increasing (Fig. 1).
An increase in food recalls could result in information
overload for consumers. Information overload occurs when
the time required for adequate information processing
exceeds the amount of time during which an individual
must process, or is able or willing to process, a given set of
information (21). Therefore, consumers conceivably receive
excessive information regarding food recalls, which increases
the likelihood that consumer attention is low, thereby increasing the risk that they will miss critical information about
purchases. To confound consumers further, media attention
to recalls increases if recall events are national in scope or
result in severe consumer illness or death (18). For example, in 2012 during the XL Foods beef recall, 974 articles
were published in Canadian news sources in September and
October of that year (based on searches within the Eureka
database). However, increased media attention does not
necessarily result in informed consumer behavior. Indeed, the
media are often criticized for inaccurate, sensational or erroneous science reporting (18). For information to be properly
translated into actionable knowledge, it must address a specific need and be able to be processed by the target audience
(22). Importantly, it must be recognized that consumers who
receive excessive information cannot cognitively process that
information (22).

Figure 1. recalls issued by the CFiA 1998 - 2017 (CFiA, 2017).

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Food Protection Trends July/August

Food Protection Trends - July/August 2019

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