Americans Confident in Safety of Nation's Food

GALLUP NEWS SERVICE

PRINCETON, NJ -- Grocery stores in 17 states are on the lookout for 530,000 pounds of ground beef that the U.S. Department of Agriculture says may be tainted with E. coli bacteria. A July 19-22 Gallup poll found a majority of Americans feeling confident about the safety of the nation's food supply, despite incidents such as this. Eight out of 10 Americans (82%) told Gallup that they were confident that the federal government could ensure the safety of food sold in supermarkets and restaurants. This represents a slight increase from two years ago -- a September 1999 Gallup poll found 76% of Americans were confident that the government could ensure food safety.

Nearly nine in 10 Americans (89%) are confident that the food available at most grocery stores is safe to eat; only 10% are not. Americans are somewhat less confident about the safety of food served at most restaurants -- 77% to 21%.

Do you feel confident or not confident that the food available at most grocery stores is safe to eat?

The reduced confidence in restaurant food could be because most restaurants are locally, rather than federally, regulated. It should be noted that, over the last couple of years, the percentage of Americans expressing confidence in the safety of food at grocery stores and restaurants has also increased at a rate similar to the increased confidence in federal oversight of food safety.

Survey Methods

These results are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected national sample of 1,038 adults, 18 years and older, conducted July 19-22, 2001. For results based on this sample, one can say with 95 percent confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects is plus or minus 3 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

Do you feel confident or not confident that the food available at most grocery stores is safe to eat?

Do you feel confident or not confident that the food served at most restaurants is safe to eat?

How much confidence do you have in the federal government to ensure the safety of the food supply in the U.S., would you say you have -- a great deal, a fair amount, not much, or none at all?