N ME UIP EQ T Food Safety Confidence Tamper-proof packaging is vital to serving safe food in the supermarket deli and bakery. The good news is that consumer confidence in food safety is at its highest point in seven years, with 88% of shoppers “completely” or “somewhat” confident in the safety of food at the supermarket, according to the Food Marketing Institute’s new U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends report. More than 90% of shoppers agree “strongly” or “somewhat” with the statement that they trust their grocery stores to ensure the food they eat is safe, and more than half of shoppers agree strongly. When asked where they believe the food safety breaches occur, more than half of shoppers named food processing and manufacturing plants. However, when asked who is responsible for ensuring food safety, more than half say they are responsible for the safety of their food, up 7 points from 2010. Next are manufacturers and processors at 35%, followed by supermarkets and government agencies at 28% each. The higher level of trust in supermarkets to sell safe food resulted in fewer respondents claiming they stopped purchasing food items because of food safety concerns. Only 12% of shoppers say they no longer purchase an item because of food safety concerns. While 2011 hasn’t had many high-profile food recalls, consumer confidence in food safety is greatly affected by recalls. Technology makes it easier to communicate recall announcements quickly to a broad audience. Real value for money ! Bake to the Future with Automatic breadslicer 2011-100-1-US www.jac-machines.com | inStorebuyer | July 2011 | 43 |