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Some consumers avoid purchasing foods they perceive as unsafe, including some imported foods, and they may choose food products they believe to be safer, such as irradiated meat or organic food. Even after a safety problem with a particular food has been resolved, consumer perceptions about the implicated food product and about the ability of the supplier or exporting country to produce safe food may be slow to change. Such perceptions may have a lasting influence on food demand and global trade.
Avoiding Foods Perceived as Unsafe
When consumers perceive a food as unsafe, demand for the food can drop. In 1996, the United Kingdom announced that BSE was linked to a new human disease, new variant Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (nvCJD). This rare, but invariably fatal, human strain causes progressive deterioration of brain tissue and had caused 164 human deaths in the UK as of February 2, 2009. After the 1996 announcement, domestic sales and consumption of beef products in the UK fell by 40 percent. Trade was also heavily affected as the European Union banned imports of live cattle and bovine products from the U.K. In the U.S., however, reaction to domestic BSE was muted. U.S. government announcements in 2003 that one cow imported from Canada was infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)
affected the sales of some beef products for only two weeks.
How does information about potential health hazards influence food demand? ERS researchers used Italy as a case study to examine consumers’ responses to newspaper articles on avian influenza (bird flu) from October 2004, after reports of the first outbreaks in Southeast Asia, through October 2006, beyond the point at which outbreaks were reported in Western Europe. Larger numbers of newspaper reports on bird flu led to larger reductions in poultry purchases. Most impacts were of limited duration, and all began to diminish within 5 weeks. (See “
The Effects of Avian Influenza News on Consumer Purchasing Behavior: A Case Study of Italian Consumers’ Retail Purchases”).
U.S. demand for Guatemalan raspberries fell after a 1996 outbreak caused by the foodborne parasite, Cyclospora, which resulted in 1,465 illnesses in the United States and Canada. By July 1996, the U.S. CDC declared Guatemalan raspberries the likely source of the illnesses. After additional outbreaks in 1997, the U.S. FDA issued an import alert for Guatemalan raspberries for the spring 1998 season. Although the Cyclospora problem with Guatemalan raspberries has been resolved, changes in consumer demand and trade continue to persist. Demand for Guatemalan raspberries has been restored to only about one-third of its pre-outbreak levels.
See Effects of Food Safety Perceptions on Food Demand and Global Trade, in Changing Structure of Global Food Consumption and Trade.
Purchasing Foods Marketed as Safer
Consumers may have the opportunity to purchase foods processed with extra steps, such as irradiation, to further reduce the risk of harmful bacteria. ERS researchers found that in a survey by the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet), half of the respondents were willing to buy irradiated ground beef or chicken, and a fourth were willing to pay a premium for these products, which cost more to produce than comparable nonirradiated products. These findings suggest that the impact of food irradiation on public health will be limited unless consumer preferences change, perhaps in response to
educational messages about the safety and benefits of food irradiation. (See “Consumer Acceptance of Irradiated Meat and Poultry Products”).
ERS research shows that some consumers perceive organic products as a safe and healthy way to avoid potential risks of exposure to pesticide residues in foods. Sales of organic baby food have been steadily increasing, and in 1995 totaled more than $25 million. This was despite a price premium of 21 cents per jar over regular baby food. (See “Consumers Pay a Premium for Organic Baby Foods” and Organic Agriculture briefing room).
High-Risk Consumers
 Individuals who are more vulnerable to foodborne illness represent one potential target for food safety education. These consumers may also represent a niche market for foods produced with extra protection, such as irradiated foods. For many pathogens, infection rates are highest among children under 10 and adults over 65. Children are at higher risk because of their lower body weights and undeveloped immune systems (See “Children and Microbial Foodborne Illness”). Pregnant women who develop foodborne illness may pass the infection on to their fetuses, perhaps resulting in miscarriage, congenital illness, or chronic neurological complications.
Some consumers are less able to fight off foodborne illness because of a weakened immune system, resulting from a gradual decline with age, HIV infection, immunosuppressant medication following organ transplant, and radiation or chemotherapy for cancer or other illness. (See “Tracking Foodborne Pathogens from Farm to Table: Data Needs to Evaluate Control Options”).
Motivating Consumers
ERS research shows that consumers who perceive higher risks of contracting foodborne illness are more likely to follow food safety recommendations, such as cooking hamburgers thoroughly. Consumers who say they read safe handling labels on meat and poultry also report that they follow food safety recommendations in greater numbers than other consumers. But further research is needed to determine whether these consumers were already concerned about foodborne illness and thus more aware of food safety information from labels and other sources (See Ralston, Katherine L. and C.T. Jordan Lin. 2001. “Safe Handling Labels on Meat and Poultry: A Case Study in Information Policy,” Consumer Interests Annual, vol. 47, pp. 1-8).
 ERS research on consumer tradeoffs in food-safety decisions focuses on the example of hamburger preferences at home and in restaurants. Using the 1996 Hamburger Preparation Quiz, conducted by the Market Research Corporation of America, ERS found that 10 percent of consumers had switched from cooking hamburgers rare or medium-rare 5 years previously to cooking them medium-well or well-done in 1996. This led to a decrease in the percentage of consumers cooking hamburgers rare or medium-rare from 24 percent in 1991 to 20 percent in 1996. Almost three-fourths of the respondents who switched from less well-done to more well-done explained they had made the change because of the possibility of becoming ill. Yet, not all consumers changed their behavior.
To explore these changes further, ERS used the Hamburger Preparation Quiz to study the relationship between consumers' hamburger cooking and ordering choices and their motivation to avoid the risk of foodborne illness from unsafely cooked hamburger. Risk-avoiding respondents ordered or cooked their hamburgers more. However, respondents who highly valued tender, juicy hamburgers were less likely to eat hamburgers cooked well-done (See “Awareness of Risks Changing How Hamburgers Are Cooked”).
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