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. 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. ERS obtains data on food consumption for use in modeling the risks associated with these foods as well as identifying demographic groups that should be targeted for food safety messages. ERS tracks trends in consumer attitudes about food safety that indicate how receptive they may be to food safety messages encouraging safe consumption and preparation behavior.