Food Safety

This chapter provides an overview of consumer perceptions about what constitutes safe food and safe food handling practices. It describes knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of consumers regarding food safety, and social, cultural, economic and demographic factors that influence consumer attitudes and behavior. Consumer perspectives associated with benefits and risks of technologies such as irradiation, genetic modification, nanotechnology, use of hormones in food animals and organic foods are also discussed. Consumers' attitudes toward food safety, food handling practices and new technologies are of interest to a wide range of stakeholders such as food producers, processors and retailers and public health professionals. Individual differences among consumers have profound influence on their acceptance of new food technologies and are likely to change over time. The challenge is to understand how to best assist consumers in balancing the risks and benefits relative to their own frames of reference.