overview
Reducing foodborne illness requires not only preventing contamination through improved processing and inspection, but also educating consumers to avoid higher-risk consumption choices and to avoid cross-contamination while preparing food. Educating consumers in turn requires an understanding of who is most at risk and which factors motivate consumers to follow food safety recommendations. ERS research in these areas provides guidance for developing and targeting food safety education. ERS also conducts research on the effect of consumer demand for food safety on incentives to produce safer food, through liability lawsuits, avoidance of foods perceived as unsafe, and purchase of foods considered especially safe. More overview...

• Consumer concerns
• Consumption and risk
• Preparation and handling
• Information sources
• Modeling behavior change
• Consumer demand for food safety

Consumer Food Safety Behavior: A Case Study in Hamburger Cooking and Ordering

Information Policy: Safe handling labels for meat and poultry—In 1994, USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) began requiring safe handling labels for all packages of raw meat and poultry. This case study reviews the economic rationale for such a regulation and summarizes the available data on the success of the regulation. Labels serve both the public health goal of reducing foodborne illness as well as the informational goal of allowing consumers to take informed risks if they choose not to follow safe handling instructions.

Hamburger Doneness and Consumer Preferences data—To reduce foodborne illness, USDA recommends that consumers cook hamburgers thoroughly and order them thoroughly cooked in restaurants. This Hamburger Doneness and Consumer Preferences data set forms part of an in-depth case study of the tradeoffs consumers face when making food safety behavior changes. The 1996 data for 1,800 households are in ASCII format, along with technical documentation and the questionnaire.

recommended readings
Consumer Perceptions of Safety Critical for Food Imports—Highly publicized international food safety incidents may change consumer perceptions about food safety and consumers' food purchasing patterns. In some instances where the public outcry has been particularly strong, there have been changes in government regulations affecting domestic and/or imported food products. Even after a problem has been resolved regarding the safety of an imported food, consumer perceptions about the implicated food product and about the exporting country's ability to produce safe food may be slow to change, and these perceptions may have a lasting influence on food demand and global trade.

Restaurants are the chief target of foodborne illness lawsuits—Nearly a third of foodborne lawsuits tracked by ERS from 1988-97 targeted restaurants as the source of the food contamination. The second largest category of defendants was "parent companies." The median award to winning plaintiffs was $25,560, while a few much higher awards raised the mean to $133,280 (in 1998 dollars).

See all recommended readings...

recommended data products
The Hamburger Doneness and Consumer Preferences data—Provides information from two 1996 national survey modules on consumer doneness choices, cooking methods, attitudes toward foodborne illness and sensory characteristics of hamburgers, and food safety information sources.

Consumption of raw and lightly cooked foods exposes consumers to the risk of foodborne illness because thorough cooking is required to destroy disease-causing organisms. ERS obtains data on food consumption for use in modeling the risks associated with these foods as well as identifying demographic groups that should be targeted for food safety messages.

• Consumption of raw ground beef, raw fish, and raw eggs, 1993-95—Excel tables showing the frequency of consumption and share of eatings by demographic groups.
• Consumption of rare and medium rare hamburgers, 1996—Excel table showing the percent of hamburgers described as red, pink, or brown in the center.
• Background data on food consumption—These tables describe the consumption of different foods and nutrients by age-sex group and eating location. See the individual tables for children 2-18 and adults over 60, two groups that are particularly vulnerable to foodborne illness.

recent research developments
Consumer willingness to pay for safer food—ERS established a new, extramural research program to measure the benefits of safer food with the help of a special appropriation in 1999. ERS used a competitive selection process to award funding for two cooperative agreements in food safety research, one with Harvard University and the other with the University of Wyoming, to apply state-of-the-art economic analysis to estimate the benefits of improving the safety of the Nation's food supply. ers' food safety awareness, knowledge, concerns, and practices.

Changes in Consumer Knowledge, Behavior, and Confidence—A synthesis of available survey and focus group data to measure changes in consumer knowledge of safe handling practices, consumers' use of safe handling practices (i.e., behavior), and their confidence in the safety of meat and poultry since the PR/HACCP farm-to-table initiatives were implemented. Sponsored by USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service.

newsletters
Receive notice via e-mail as the latest ERS research on food safety becomes available by subscribing to our e-mail updates. Be sure to check the "food safety" box.

• Government food safety policies
• Industry food safety actions
• Information policy
• Economics of foodborne disease
• Organic farming and marketing
• Traceability in the U.S. Food Suppy

related links
FoodNet Population Survey—A periodic survey of food safety behavior as part of a multi-state surveillance of foodborne illness, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System—A multi-state survey that includes food safety behavior.

See all related links…

glossary
Brief definitions for the technical economic and clinical terms used.

for more information, contact: Katherine Ralston
web administration: webadmin@ers.usda.gov
page updated: January 3, 2003