The IFIC (International Food Information Council) carried out a survey to understand better consumer perceptions related to food fraud. US consumer awareness of fraud was not high. Nearly half (48%) of consumers taking part had not heard of any of the provided terms used to describe food fraud. “Food fraud,” “food authenticity,” “counterfeit food,” and “economically motivated adulterants” (EMAs) were all given as options in this survey, and fewer than one in ten consumers (9%) had heard of all these terms.
However, survey respondents were able to recall hearing about a specific case of food fraud in the news. When given a list of recent incidents, the most recognised included contaminated pet food (39% had heard about this), Salmonella in peanut butter (30%) and infant formula contamination in China (25%). One in ten had heard of all the incidents, while 28% had never seen or heard of any of the incidents in the news.
Read the article and the report here
