Meat + Poultry - October 2007 - 60

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confidence in restaurant food to be
even lower at 43 percent.
"These findings send a strong message to the entire food industry," said
Tim Hammonds, FMI president and
CEO. "All of us need to work together
to be sure our consumers continue to
receive the high quality, affordable food
they have every right to expect."
The survey found food-safety concerns caused 38 percent of consumers
to stop purchasing certain foods in the
past 12 months - up from 9 percent
in 2006. Among those who stopped
buying products, the foods most often
mentioned were spinach (71 percent),
lettuce (16 percent), bagged salad (9
percent) and beef (8 percent). The survey was conducted in January 2007,
when the outbreak linked to spinach
was still in the news and illnesses associated with other foods were starting
to make headlines.

Mike Sansolo, FMI senior vice president, said the association found the data
so startling that it did a follow-up survey
and received the same results.
"Consumers think everyone is letting
them down," he said. "We have a food
safety confidence problem that has to
be addressed."
"You don't see this kind of change in
consumer polling," Hammonds added.
"It is dramatic."
In response to the findings, the FMI
has formed a new food safety task force
to make recommendations to the association regarding future food safety policy. One specific area the task force will
focus on is food product recalls.
"I think our recall system is broken,"
Hammonds said. "It is not compatible
from supplier to supplier. We are going to
put together a conference with other food
industry groups that will focus on how
we can improve the recall process."

High fuel and home-heating costs
are driving other changes in shopping
for 41 percent of consumers, according
to the survey. For example, 69 percent
of those surveyed said they are cooking more and eating out less; 56 percent purchase more private-label products as opposed to national brands; 40
perrcent purchased fewer food items
overall; and 21 percent purchase more
prepared meals from grocery stores as
opposed to going out.
In addition, the rising cost of gas may
have contributed to how often consumer
shop, according to the survey. For the
first time since the FMI began conducting the survey, consumers now shop for
food fewer than two times per week.
The average number of trips is now 1.9
per week, down from 2.1 in 2006.
Hammonds noted, however, that
the national response to the rising cost
of fuel is also problematic for the su-

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October 2007

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Meat + Poultry - October 2007

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