September is National Food Safety Education Month and while our industry seems to live and breathe food safety, the upcoming focus on it does beg the question – how much do consumers know and understand about food safety?
For many, food safety is something they think about when there is an issue: whether it affected them directly or they hear about an outbreak in the media.
And like consumers, while those of us who work in the industry think about food safety constantly, we often don’t share about the efforts we take until a crisis arises. As an industry, we seem to react to food safety crises rather than share proactive information to build consumer trust regularly.
LeAnne Ruzzamenti
As consumers, we take for granted that we have access to some of the safest, most abundant and affordable food supplies in the world.
But as industry members, we also take for granted our responsibility to share our story with consumers so they better understand the role we play in creating this level of safety and abundance. Farmworkers play a vital role in the food supply chain, and in fact are the foundation of our supply chain, ensuring the availability, quality and safety of our food.
Food safety isn’t always a sexy topic to address, but it is our duty to educate consumers about it regularly. It is important for consumers to know the steps – sometimes painstaking ones – we are taking.
A past FDA survey found that consumers think they’re more likely to get a foodborne illness from food consumed at a restaurant versus food prepared at home, and they’re also more worried about contamination of raw chicken or beef than contaminated raw vegetables.
There is an opportunity for us to build on or change what they already think or believe.
We recently conducted a consumer survey and polled respondents about a variety of social responsibility and sustainability issues. Specifically, we asked them about their concerns when purchasing fresh fruits and vegetables.
Food recalls, foodborne outbreaks and illness were their second highest concern at 68 percent, right behind pesticide use and residues at 69 percent.
This finding further reinforces that we have both an obligation and an opportunity to share our stories to better promote our industry efforts in growing and shipping fresh and safe fruits and vegetables.
During September and after, I encourage you to expand the food safety message beyond in-home education to raise awareness about the 2.4 million farmworkers around the United States who work tirelessly to grow, harvest and pack safe fruits and vegetables and who follow strict protocols to reduce the prevalence and severity of food safety incidents.
We’ve put together some important messages, social media graphics and a video that can be shared by the industry to help build consumer trust and amplify the message that food safety starts at the farm.
Join us in sharing #FoodSafetyMonth messages in September and beyond!
September is National Food Safety Education Month and while our industry seems to live and breathe food safety, the upcoming focus on it does beg the question – how much do consumers know and understand about food safety?
For many, food safety is something they think about when there is an issue: whether it affected them directly or they hear about an outbreak in the media.
And like consumers, while those of us who work in the industry think about food safety constantly, we often don’t share about the efforts we take until a crisis arises. As an industry, we seem to react to food safety crises rather than share proactive information to build consumer trust regularly.
LeAnne Ruzzamenti
As consumers, we take for granted that we have access to some of the safest, most abundant and affordable food supplies in the world.
But as industry members, we also take for granted our responsibility to share our story with consumers so they better understand the role we play in creating this level of safety and abundance. Farmworkers play a vital role in the food supply chain, and in fact are the foundation of our supply chain, ensuring the availability, quality and safety of our food.
Food safety isn’t always a sexy topic to address, but it is our duty to educate consumers about it regularly. It is important for consumers to know the steps – sometimes painstaking ones – we are taking.
A past FDA survey found that consumers think they’re more likely to get a foodborne illness from food consumed at a restaurant versus food prepared at home, and they’re also more worried about contamination of raw chicken or beef than contaminated raw vegetables.
There is an opportunity for us to build on or change what they already think or believe.
We recently conducted a consumer survey and polled respondents about a variety of social responsibility and sustainability issues. Specifically, we asked them about their concerns when purchasing fresh fruits and vegetables.
Food recalls, foodborne outbreaks and illness were their second highest concern at 68 percent, right behind pesticide use and residues at 69 percent.
This finding further reinforces that we have both an obligation and an opportunity to share our stories to better promote our industry efforts in growing and shipping fresh and safe fruits and vegetables.
During September and after, I encourage you to expand the food safety message beyond in-home education to raise awareness about the 2.4 million farmworkers around the United States who work tirelessly to grow, harvest and pack safe fruits and vegetables and who follow strict protocols to reduce the prevalence and severity of food safety incidents.
We’ve put together some important messages, social media graphics and a video that can be shared by the industry to help build consumer trust and amplify the message that food safety starts at the farm.
