Don't Eat That! Most Americans Worry About Safety of Food Supply

More than 60 percent of survey respondents express concern about food contamination.

July 29, 2010

WASHINGTON - According to a survey conducted for National Public Radio by Reuters and released earlier this week, a large percentage of Americans are concerned about the safety of the food they eat, NPR reports.

Recent recalls of tainted lettuce and ground beef contaminated with E. coli are just two food-related events that have 61 percent of NPR's respondents "concerned" about contamination of the food supply, with 51 percent worried most about meat and 23 percent concerned about produce (milk, by comparison, elicited concerns from just four percent of respondents).

The recent Gulf oil spill has raised fears of seafood contamination, with more than one-third of the survey's respondents saying their fears have increased over the past three months, roughly the time that oil has been spilling into the Gulf of Mexico.

As for ways to improve food safety, the responses varied. More people said food companies need to improve their internal checks than those who called for stricter oversight or penalties.

As for the provision in the bipartisan food safety bill that passed the House last year, whereby the FDA is given power to force food companies to recall tainted products, eighty percent expressed support for the legislation.

Ten percent of the survey's respondents reported getting sick from food in the last six months, with more than a quarter of those having to seek medical care.

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