Mini survey provides update on consumers' views

Thursday 19 February 2009

The Agency has published the results of its latest mini survey, which is conducted on a quarterly basis to monitor changes in consumer attitudes of key food issues and trust in the FSA.

A sample of 2097 UK adults were interviewed in December 2008 for this latest wave of tracking research.

The results show that confidence in the food safety measures of all organisations significantly increased from the previous tracking survey in September 2008, with 60% of respondents feeling confident about actions being taken to protect health.

The number of people who stated that they were confident in the role of the FSA increased from 61% to 64%. This confidence in the role played by the Agency in protecting health is the highest level since the tracking surveys began in 2001. There were significant declines in the percentage of people concerned about specific food issues, such as food prices, and levels of salt and fat in food.

The annual Consumer Attitudes' Survey (CAS) is currently being reviewed by the Agency’s Social Science Research Committee. To ensure we continue to gather yearly statistics on certain issues, some key questions from the CAS were asked within this quarterly mini survey and in the September survey. This year the Agency also published a one-off Public Attitudes to Food Issues survey, to better understand what people think about food issues, particularly food shopping, healthy eating, food safety at home and when eating out.