Public attitudes survey published

Wednesday 20 July 2011

The latest results from the Agency’s biannual public attitudes tracker have been published today.

Awareness of the Food Standards Agency has increased from 79% in November 2010 to 83% in May 2011, and 66% of the respondents reported that they trusted the FSA to do its job.

The survey indicates that people are less concerned about food safety issues than other food issues such as food prices (61%), the amount of salt in food (50%), the amount of fat in food and food waste (both at 44%).

In total, 82% of respondents reported being aware of the hygiene standards of the places they eat out at or buy food from and this is similar to November 2010. The main ways that respondents report being aware are from the general appearance of the premises (68%), appearance of staff (55%) and reputation (46%).

This latest wave of research was undertaken in May 2011, with a total number of 2,078 respondents interviewed via the TNS consumer face to face omnibus survey. Subject areas include food-related concerns, awareness of hygiene standards in eating establishments, awareness of the FSA and its responsibilities and trust in the FSA. This is the second wave of the biannual tracker, which started in November 2010.