Virginians Perceptions of Fresh Produce Food Safety

The Food Safety Modernization Act signed into law in 2011 established some minimum standards based on known safety risks for produce growers to implement and document. However, an estimated 48 million foodborne illnesses are reported each year in the U.S. with approximately 3000 deaths resulting. Our objective was to understand just how safe consumers perceive their produce is. We developed a 54 item online survey which was administered with Qualtrics (Provo, UT) online platform. A sample of 636 participants from Virginia were recruited from GMI Lightspeed (Warren, NJ), which maintains a panel of 5.5 million individuals. Responses were collected from 15 to 22 September 2015. The sample of 636 respondents was comprised of 70.1% females and 24.6% males (5.3% did not respond). Mean age was 50 years and households had a mean 2.3 adults and 1.8 children. Only 20.3% had a high school education or less and 34.0% lived in a suburban region. Mean household income was $65,615. Of the total responses, 67.4% agreed or strongly agreed that “I don’t have time to worry about food safety” and 17% agreed or strongly agreed that “Consumers assume the produce they buy is safe to eat.” However, 81% agreed or strongly agreed that “I am confident that the produce I buy is safe to eat” and 63.7% agreed or strongly agreed that “I rely on the farmer to make sure my food is safe”. The analysis of the conjoint portion of the study revealed that the purchase source (farmer’s market, natural food store/cooperative, roadside stand, or supermarket) was relatively the most important of the three attributes to determining food safety, accounting for nearly 43% of the rating for safe food, followed closely by the produce itself (40%). Production method accounted for only 17% of the decision on how safe the food was. The safest produce was the grape tomato, followed by the mixed berries, and leafy greens. Sprouts were perceived to be the most risky (lowest utility estimate). Among the four options for purchase source, the perceived safest place was a natural food store or cooperative. The supermarket and farmers market were similar and slightly safer purchase locations and compared to the roadside stand, which was perceived to be the least safe place among the four listed to purchase produce.