Tag Archives: Survey

Food safety surveys still suck; someone’s making money off crap

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In the latest ridiculously expensive survey of Canadians, 77 per cent of Canadians said they were either "very" or "somewhat" concerned with the safety of the food they eat, up from 66 per cent in 2007,

The Ipsos Reid poll conducted for Postmedia News found 87 per cent agree that they trust food that comes from Canada more than food that comes from abroad, with 85 per cent of respondents saying they make an effort to buy locally-grown and produced food.

So, Canadians trust Maple Leaf and their listeria-laden cold cuts more than stuff from other places?

Debbie Field, executive director of the Toronto-based food advocacy group FoodShare, said,

"Even though it seems silly and a bit utopian to imagine small producers being safer, what people like me believe is that it’s true. You’ll always have some problem, you’ll always have contamination, you’ll always have some airborne illness. But if it’s kept local, its impact is much smaller.”

The only way to verify such claims is to assess

Food safety surveys are like jazz – they both suck

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National Public Radio took a break yesterday from seeking out the nation’s most inaccessible jazz (see Colbert, below) to report that Americans worry about the safety of the food supply.

According to a national survey conducted for NPR by Thomson Reuters and released today, 61 per cent are concerned about contamination of the food supply. Most of them — 51 per cent — worry most about meat.

In our Thompson Reuters survey, more people said food companies should improve their quality control systems, rather than calling for more inspections, oversight or stiffer penalties.

Consumers Union, which did its own survey recently, asked 1,000 people whether Congress should pass a law to give the Food and Drug Administration the power to force food companies to recall tainted products; 80 per cent said yes.

Food safety surveys suck.

And now back to hateful, free-form jazz.

The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
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Road apples, cow patties, and E. coli O1 what?

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A new study from the University of Aberdeen finds that two thirds of visitors to the U.K. countryside have never heard of E. coli O157.

Does that matter? Does someone need to know specifically about E. coli O157 or do they need to know to wash their hands after playing with road apples or cow patties.

In the study by researchers from the Universities of Aberdeen and Bangor two thirds of rural residents and country visitors who had heard of E. coli O157 said they acted to reduce their risk of the potentially deadly infection.

However, most described how they reduced risk by cooking meat properly, and very few gave examples of reducing risk around farm animals and in the countryside.

Over 2000 tourists, residents and famers from north Wales and the Grampian region — which has one of the world’s highest rates of the infection — took part in the survey.

Dr Colette Jones from the University of Aberdeen’s School of Geosciences said:

“‘In light of last year’s E. coli O157 outbreak on the open farm in Surrey it is important to recognise that rural visitors are not as well informed as they might be. They read the signs about washing hands but may not take it seriously enough if they are not fully aware of the danger. In this project we are aiming to determine the level of understanding of the infection among farmers, locals and visitors to rural areas, and thereby identify how cases of E. coli O157 could be better prevented.”

So those ‘Employees must wash hands’ signs may not work?

Jon Stewart figured that out in 2002.

“If you think the 10 commandments being posted in a school is going to change behavior of children, then you think “Employees Must Wash Hands” is keeping the piss out of your happy meals. It’s not.”

And in honor of Road Apples, here’s the rarely played Tragically Hip song, Born in the Water, from the 1991 recording about Katie’s hometown of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, which at one point decided it would be a good idea to ban French.
 

People handle food any way they want

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Some form of direct observation is the only way to do meaningful food safety behavior research, and the phrase, consumer food safety education, should be banned.

Or at least try something new – the stuff that is out there just doesn’t work.

That’s what I take from a preliminary summary of research led by Christine Bruhn, director of the Center for Consumer Research at the University of California, Davis, and Ho Phang, prepared by Meatingplace.

Sure, those are a couple of my primary messages, so it’s easy to agree with someone who agrees with me, but nice to hear it confirmed.

Bruhn and colleagues videotaped 200 volunteers in their homes while they prepared burgers and salad. She observed their methods of defrosting the meat — frozen, preformed burgers — their refrigerators’ temperature, whether or not they put themselves at risk for cross-contamination and how they determined whether the meat was done.

Of those in the study:

* Twenty-five percent said they prefer their burgers pink.
* Eighty-three percent said they used visual clues, rather than a meat thermometer, to determine the doneness of their burgers.
* About half owned a meat thermometer, but almost all of those participants said they used it on larger cuts of meat, not burgers.
* Seventy-five percent said they were unlikely to use a meat thermometer on burgers.

Even though participants knew they were being videotaped, many did not follow recommended guidelines when preparing their burgers:

* Although 90 percent of consumers were observed washing their hands prior to food preparation, the average hand-washing time was just seven seconds, and only 31 percent dried their hands with a clean towel (either a paper towel or a cloth towel that had not been used previously).

* Potential cross-contamination — defined by the study as "an event in which pathogens could be transferred from one surface to another as a result of contact with a potential source of contamination" — occurred in 74 percent of the households.

* While a bar graph showing the temperature distribution of the finished burgers demonstrated that many were at or near the recommended 160 degrees F, a few of the burgers’ temperatures were recorded to be much lower — as low as 112 degrees F. (Study coordinators observing consumer behavior made sure all burgers were cooked to 160 F before volunteers consumed them.)

Even after the exercise, only 23 percent of participants said they would use a meat thermometer on burgers in the future.

Bruhn said,

"Consumer education is not sufficient. Take the extra step. It protects the public, and it protects you."

Safe food shouldn’t just be for the affluent – and they’re sorta clueless when it comes to food that makes them barf

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Market research sucks. With food, people vote at the checkout counter with their wallets. Sitting at home, talking to some annoying survey person who only calls when dinner is about to be served reveals … nothing, except the potential buying patterns of pissed off shoppers, wondering why they can’t just eat dinner without the phone ringing.

A new national survey of more affluent consumers from strategic marketing communications firm Context Marketing, “Beyond Organic — How Evolving Consumer Concerns Influence Food Purchases,” has found that most respondents are highly concerned about the safety of the food they buy and would pay more for food they believe to be safer or healthier.

The research also found that assurances about what a food doesn’t contain, such as pesticides or antibiotics, matter a great deal to these consumers, along with ethical claims that reinforce quality and safety perceptions. …

While respondents confirmed that low price is a major influence on most food purchases, 60 percent said they would pay up to 10 percent more for food they think is healthier, safer or produced according to higher ethical standards, and 14 percent said they would pay a premium greater than 10 percent.

But right now, all that is available at retail is products that hint at enhanced microbial food safety and offer … nothing.

Market microbial food safety so consumers can choose.


 

Handwashing habits have not changed: the survey is in

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Bradley Corporation, leading manufacture of commercial bathroom and locker room furnishings, released a national survey confirming H1N1 virus has not changed handwashing habits of Americans. Approximately 54 per cent of surveyed individuals said they “wash their hands no more or less frequently” since H1N1 flu virus has emerged.

Jon Dommisse, Bradley Corporation’s director of marketing and product development said, “we were extremely surprised by that response especially since the medical community calls hand washing the best defense against the spread of cold and flu viruses.”

Handwashing is recommended by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Washing your hands “is a simple thing to do and it’s the best way to prevent infection and illness.”

The online survey was administered July 28-31 to 1,020 Americans regarding handwashing in public restrooms. Individuals were from across the country, equally male and female, and ranged from 18-65+ years old.

Surprise: Research finds Canadians consumed fewer deli-meats after listeria killed 20

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This is why I stopped being interested in survey research, oh, about 15 years ago.

The University of Guelph today announced that a new survey had found a majority of Canadians have changed their buying and consumption behaviour following the recall associated with listeria in ready-to-eat meats. If people said so, it must be true.

"The listeriosis outbreak was not only associated with the death of 20 people and the illness of many others, but it also contributed to economic loss in the food industry," said Prof. John Cranfield of the Department of Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics.

Uh, yup.

"Before the food recall, consumers did not consider the potential risks of ready-to-eat meats to be significant," Cranfield said.

That’s because no one, even listeria guru Michael McCain, said anything about the risks.

So, with a lot of death, illness and massive media coverage, consumers became more aware.

The press release also says, in something that is tragically not interesting, that,

“Interestingly, although overall confidence in food safety in Canada remains high, consumers’ trust in food-chain stakeholders to protect them from listeria is only moderate, the researchers found. Farmers were judged to have the greatest ability to ensure the safety of food, whereas restaurants, grocery stores and the food-service sector were deemed to have the least ability.”

What farmers have to do with listeria in deli-meats is beyond me; maybe a university puckering a little too tightly to a constituency?

The press release gushes that,

“The survey is the second to be produced as part of the Guelph Food Panel, the first large-scale panel of consumers dedicated to food research. Developed by Henson, Cranfield and post-doctoral researcher Oliver Masakure, it allows researchers to accurately track changes in Canadians’ eating habits and measure consumer responses to issues such as food scares.”

20 dead isn’t a food scare. It’s a food screw-up.

Show me, don’t tell me

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Show me, don’t tell me: That’s what I thought as I glanced through the latest survey from the International Food Information Council (IFIC) Foundation on May 14, 2008.

The survey of 1,000 American adults, conducted in February and March of 2008, found that,

"while more than three-quarters of Americans (82%) say they are confident in their ability to safely prepare food, many do not take steps to reduce the spread of bacteria in their kitchen. For instance, less than half (48%) report using separate cutting boards for raw meat or poultry and produce, and just 29% say they use a meat thermometer. … Most (92%) report washing their hands with soap and water when preparing food, and nearly as many (79%) say they store leftovers within two hours of serving. But just 15% report checking the wattage on their microwaves, and even fewer (7%) say they use a meat thermometer when using their microwave."

Danielle Schor, Senior Vice President of Food Safety for the IFIC Foundation and registered dietitian, said,

“Consumers are a lot more confident about their ability to safely prepare food than they ought to be, based on what we learned. We still have a long way to go to educate the public about the basics such as avoiding cross contamination and cooking to proper temperature."

We’ve been doing a bunch of observational research over the past year and results will start trickling out in the next few months. Until then, as Brae Surgeoner wrote in the June 2007 issue of Food Protection Trends

"The study of consumer food-handling practices has relied almost exclusively on data obtained in self-report surveys. … The problem is that people often lie.

"In 1999, a team of Australian researchers, in their article, “A Video Study of Australian Domestic Food-Handling Practices,” impressed upon readers of the Journal of Food Protection the discrepancy that exists between what consumers say they do, and what they actually do. Comparing responses to a food-safety questionnaire administered prior to video surveillance of participants in their home kitchens, the researchers found significant deviations between stated and actual behavior.  For example, there was a highly significant difference between self-reported and observed hand-washing practices. … Without observing actual behavior, food safety educators may be developing interventions that are successful in changing what individuals report they do, but may do little in changing what they actually do."

Oh, and anyone who says that avoiding cross-contamination is simple should be videotaped preparing a meal — preferably with a few kids running around or some other distractions similar to actual scenarios — and the video analyzed by trained coders looking for food safety, including cross-contamination, mistakes. My videos are at http://www.youtube.com/SafeFoodCafe, and I make mistakes — or at least what may be defined as a mistake. That’s because food safety — including avoiding cross-contamination — is not simple.

Food safety information: rapid, reliable, repeated and relevant

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Rapid, reliable, repeated and relevant. That’s been the food safety mantra at iFSN for over a decade. Here’s why.

Dr. Carol Byrd-Bredbenner of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and colleagues reported in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association that many college students engaged in eating behaviors that could make them sick.

Based on surveys of 4,343 students at 21 colleges and universities across the U.S.,

53 percent reported eating raw homemade cookie dough (which contains uncooked eggs), 33 percent said they ate fried eggs with soft or runny yolks, 29 percent ate sushi, and 28 percent consumed raw sprouts. Eleven percent said they ate raw oysters, clams or mussels, and 7 percent said they ate pink hamburger.

I won’t begin to get into all the faults with these kinds of measures or the near futility of drawing any meaningful conclusions from self-reported surveys.

Even so, the authors figured that,

"current food safety education efforts may not provide the information and/or motivation needed to compel individuals to change their consumption levels of risky foods. … Health professionals should focus creative efforts on developing safe food consumption behaviors in this group and thereby help safeguard the health of this population and enable them to fulfill the role of protecting the health of their future families."

Don’t eat poop.