Food safety system earns Canadians' trust: survey

Thursday, September 15, 2011

by SUSAN MANN

Canadians’ confidence in the country’s food safety system has increased slightly this year compared to 2010, according to a Canadian Food Inspection Agency survey.

The survey, conducted by Leger Marketing in the spring, found that 68 per cent of Canadians gave the system a favourable confidence rating. That’s up from 65 per cent in 2010 and 60 per cent in 2008.

“Confidence in the food system comes from a variety of reasons with the top reason being that Canadians have faith in the food safety system,” it says in the survey report released Thursday.

Residents of Quebec and British Columbia are the least confident in the system while people in Saskatchewan and Manitoba are the most confident. Men tend to have more confidence in the system than women, the survey says.

Survey respondents were also more confident in Canadian farmers’ ability to contain the spread of potentially harmful food products or to lead food recalls than they were in the federal government, the food production industry or foreign farmers. However, all four groups received confidence ratings of above 3.5 on a scale of seven.

The report also indicates Canadians trust the government’s ability to manage food recalls, recognizing that recalls show the system is working. During the past five years the average number of recalls have remained stable at 226 per year, it says in a CFIA press release.

The survey results are used to help the CFIA better meet the needs of consumers and stakeholders. BF