Reducing foodborne illness requires not only preventing contamination through improved processing and inspection, but also educating consumers to avoid unsafe consumption choices and to prepare food safely to avoid cross-contamination. The 1997 Food Safety Initiative recognizes this with funding for a national media campaign to encourage safe food handling. Educating consumers in turn requires an understanding of which consumers follow food safety recommendations and what factors motivate them. ERS conducts research on what consumers do to protect themselves from foodborne illness, how they perceive the risks of foodborne illness, and what characteristics, attitudes, and Information sources are associated with their behavior.
Research also shows television and magazines are important channels of food safety information.
These findings help food safety educators design and target food safety messages. Refrigerate Promptly to keep food safe from harmful bacteria that cause foodborne illness. September is National Food Safety Education Month SM . Even after a problem has been resolved regarding the safety of an imported food, consumer perceptions about the implicated food product and about the exporting country's ability to produce safe food may be slow to change, and these perceptions may have a lasting influence on food demand and global trade. These findings suggest that the impact of food irradiation on public health will be limited unless consumer preferences change, perhaps in response to educational messages about the safety and benefits of food irradiation.