NOV DECEMBER 2004 ISSUES BRING UP TO DATE 45 I actually S T U E S
UPGRADE
2 zero 0 some
by Ron McCarty
Executive Director, Problems Management NCBA
Summary
The checkoff-funded beef safety monitoring survey done
in November 2004 identified that clean beef steaks/roasts remained
the protein with the highest consumer confidence in safety. The
survey asks customers to give marks to foods for being secure to
consume and seventy six percent of survey participants gave steak/roast an A
or B for safety.
Backdrop
The gound beef safety traffic monitoring surveys are quarterly phone
surveys of a national, unique sample of U. T. adults.
Vegans do not answer the study. The perimeter of problem for
study data is usually plus/minus several. 2 percent.
General foodstuff safety
The percentage of Americans giving U. S i9000. food on the whole an
A or W for protection has remained comparatively stable with some small
changes in the past yr. However , this survey discovered the
percentage of A/B grades (70%) significantly lower than in
The fall of 2003 (74%) and at the lowest score since November
2002 (69%). The November 2004 score is much lower than the
77 percent measured during the last study in May 2005.
Safety of specific new foods
The safety ratings for specific refreshing foods remained stable
in the past year with no significant differences in the
evaluations in Nov 2004. Fruits and vegetables are
regularly at the top of the list in terms of safety levels
given to specific fresh food one may well buy within a grocery store.
Clean beef meats and roasts receive the top meat item
safety quality (76%).
Linked for second place with 70 percent of consumers grading
A or W were clean pork chops and microwaveable foods. Foods
with decrease consumer protection grades had been fresh surface beef
(64%), fresh poultry (63%), fresh fish (60%), fresh ground pork
(56%) and pre-prepared foods in the deli (52%).
Specific concerns regarding foodstuff safety
The protection tracking study asks buyers to level their level
of concern regarding specific safety issues on a 5-point scale, with
one staying not worried and five being extremely concerned.
The proportion of best two results (4-5 scores on the scale)
indicate the difficulties of greatest concern.
Questions of safety tend not to become top of mind with consumers
evidenced by the fact that safety issues barely register when ever
consumers condition reasons for eating fewer calories beef. Nevertheless , when
asked to think about particular safety problems, bacteria (62%)
and insect poison (62%) leading the list. Customer concerns regarding
chemical ingredients (58%) and mad cow disease (57%) make up
the second tier of safety worries. Concerns regarding mad cow
disease would not increase drastically as a result of the first U. S.
case of Boeotian Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in December
2003, and in fact, currently will be significantly below the sixty one
percent concern level measured in The fall of 2003.
Additional issues rated as reduce concerns include hormones
(50%), genetically altered foods (46%), antibiotics (45%) and
irradiated foods (40%). The only concern that has shown a
significant increase in standard of concern during the past year is definitely
chemical artificial additives which increased from fifty percent in
Nov 2003 to the current 58 percent.
Specific food product safety worries
The survey asks participants to choose, coming from a list of 6
foods, the one food they may be most worried about in terms of
getting safe to have. Typically, no more than 15 percent of consumers
select beef as their food of highest concern. However , powered
by the intense media insurance coverage surrounding the first U. S. BSE
case, the percentage choosing meat as their top safety
concern jumped inside the first half of 2004.
That concern moderated in the second half of the calendar
year. As the checkoff-funded BSE tracking exploration showed
that consumer confidence did not drop as a result of the BSE
case, the safety track surveys reveal that customers were
more worried about about meat than usual.
Table 1 displays research comes from the past five quarters
relating to foods of highest protection concern to consumers.
Customers rate beef steaks and roasts tops
among protein for security
RESEARCH CH BRIEFS
THE FALL OF 46 ISSUES UPDATE DECEMBER 2004 We S S i9000 U E S
BRING UP TO DATE
2 zero 0 four
Key Points
Since indicated simply by grades provided for security, consumer self confidence in meat steaks and roasts (76%) is more than the
self confidence in U. S. foodstuff in general (70%). In addition , meat steaks and roasts will be in third place, at the rear of only fruits and
vegetables, in customer confidence ranks of fresh foods safety.
Confidence in ground beef is definitely significantly reduced (64%) nevertheless relatively regular and struck highs intended for the year of 69 percent in
Might and 67 percent in September, 8 weeks that bookend the seasonal grilling period. It may be significant that
Electronic. coli O157: H7 recalls of earth beef are not a big media item in the summer of 2005.
Consumer concerns about gound beef safety have got declined to year-ago levels since staying heightened by extensive press
coverage adjacent BSE inside the first half of the year.
EXPLORATION BRIEFS
