Building the Business Case for Consumer Food Safety Education

Introduction: How can consumer food safety education programming contribute to important business objectives of food retailers and food and consumer product companies?  The Partnership for Food Safety Education set out to identify the most important benefits to business of connecting with customers and their own associates on the topic of safe food handling and home practices that can reduce risk of foodborne illness.  The Partnership pursued this through a qualitative and quantitative research study.

Purpose: The purpose of the research was to identify evidence of how consumer safe food handling messages are perceived by customers/consumers and determine if promotion of such messages can be a winning loyalty-building strategy for food companies and retailers.  

Methods: The research included two parts:  1) interviews with food industry executives; 2) a geo-demographically balanced online omnibus survey of more than 400 consumers.   Telephone interviews lasting 30-45 minutes were conducted with 20 food safety and quality assurance executives, half in retail and half in food manufacturing.  Using insight from Phase I, a detailed online questionnaire was designed and a sample of 400 grocery shoppers was surveyed.  The sample was evenly split between males and females.  A sample of 400 yielded results with 95% confidence level with a +/- 5 percent error.

Results: Information generated from manufacturers, retailers, and consumers confirm that affiliation with promoting the Fight BAC!® safe food handling messages is viewed favorably by consumers and aligns strongly with customers’ trust in a company’s quality, safety and integrity. 

Significance: Being active in the promotion of home food safety messages is a winning strategy for food retailers and food manufacturers.