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09.20.2006
“HartBeat” is The Hartman Group's FREE online newsletter, providing insight, analysis, information and strategy to give business leaders the knowledge and vision to build sustainable brands.
| NOW AVAILABLE» Pulse Report
This Pulse Report This report examines the issues of food safety from a consumer perspective. To gauge public concern over time, this study uses the findings from two online surveys: one in January 2004 and another in April 2005. What we found is that public concern for the safety of food remains high and is a growing trend. |
Click to learn more...For more Hartman Group articles on FOOD SAFETY, click here...
05.03.2006 "Transparency: What's Really Inside the Package...and the Company"
07.28.2005 "The Paradox of Fresh"
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StumbleUponRethinking Food Safety
Those who work in the food industry, whether as growers, manufacturers, retailers or restaurant operators, know that the term "food safety" has broad implications: Even at a national level in the United States, there are six separate federal agencies responsible for the safety of a packaged ham and cheese sandwich, while additional regional, state and local agencies act to regulate many phases of food production. For the consumer, despite the fact that foodborne illnesses and the threat of bioterrorism have seen increasing coverage in media headlines, not to mention the recent E. coli outbreak, food safety has a much more personal scope to it. In the 2005 Hartman Group Pulse Report, Food Safety from a Consumer Perspective, when asked to define what food safety means to them, consumers saw it as a term that designates an "absence of harm" derived from eating foods that are "free of" or "clean" of contaminants, bacteria or additives that might make themselves or their families sick. Other consumer definitions of food safety include:
- "Food safety means not getting sick from consuming foods."
"Food safety means that food is clean, safe and healthy to eat."
"Food safety is the promise that whatever we consume is free of any disease and will not make us sick."
When framing their definitions of food safety, consumers use five interrelated mindsets, with the word "proper" (or "properly") being used predominantly. These five food safety mindsets include:
- Process: Properly washed, prepared, cooked, grown, handled, stored, packaged andcontrolled foods
Consumption: Eating foods that are clean, free of contaminants, fresh and healthy
Diligence: Making sure food is properly stored, fresh, and clean
Storage: Keeping foods clean, bacteria free, uncontaminated, fresh
Peace of Mind: Knowledge that food has been handled, prepared, packaged, washed in a safe way and knowing what is in food
These five mind-sets reflect that for consumers, food safety is a highly tactile and active world made up of key processes that include vigilance, knowledge and the careful, physical "processing" of foods in order to safely consume them.
Consumers have high concern for food safety in many settings, including the home, when shopping for food, and when dining out. Dining out, however, turns out to be an occasion where consumers feel the least in control of food safety and exhibit the highest concern, while food safety at home is viewed as the most controllable setting. These two extremes in perceptions about food safety have interrelated components illustrated in the following table:
| Most Perceived Control: In the Home Areas of Control: | Least Perceived Control: Eating Out Areas of Concern: |
| Cleanliness of cooking surfaces, utensils and foods | Concerns over the general cleanliness of the kitchen and restaurant overall as well as concerns over where food is prepared (in a back room vs. prepared in view of consumers) |
| Freshness and storage of foods | Concerns over freshness of food (was it previously frozen or made from fresh ingredients?) |
| Origins of food | Concerns over where food the restaurant uses comes from |
| Personal hygiene | Concerns over employees and personal hygiene (young age of employees, use of hands, etc.) |
When shopping for food, consumers have a high concern for food safety, yet appear to have nearly the same sense of control over purchasing safe foods as they do in eating food at home. This stems from the fact that shopping for food has many tactile components used to determine when foods are safe to purchase, including:
- Smell (of foods),
- Examination of the expiration date,
- Condition of packaging, the color (of foods),
- Bruises on fruits and vegetables, and the
- Appearance and reputation of the store
When compared to how many food safety variables a consumer can control at home or when shopping for food, we can see that a key concern to consumers when dining out is a lack of interaction between the process and the ingredients that produce their meal. As if in response to such concerns by European consumers, McDonalds, under a campaign called "Open Doors," opened up the company's kitchens in 30 European countries to tours that describe how their products are made and where ingredients are sourced from.
While perceptions of restaurant employees being well-trained about food safety and the overall cleanliness of the restaurant are paramount to consumers, several voiced a preference for seeing the ingredients that make up their meal prepared in front of them vs. in a protected kitchen. These visible ingredients are believed to be more fresh than in a restaurant that "hides" its food from customers. Examples given by consumers of restaurants that have visible meal constructions include sandwich and pizza restaurants (such as Subway), and then artisan restaurants where chefs prepare foods openly.
Take Away
Food Safety from the consumer perspective is a tactile world that represents a constant process of properly handling, storing and presenting of food that consumers' hope is free of or clean of various contaminants. While consumers are most concerned about food safety and feel least in control of it when dining out, both restaurant operators and food retailers can create greater levels of comfort for customers by communicating how employees are trained for food safety, how often high-traffic areas are cleaned, and most importantly by making every attempt to prepare foods in settings that are more interactive
