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Troubled by the tainted tomato scare, nearly half of Americans are concerned they may get sick from eating contaminated food and are avoiding items they normally would buy, an Associated Press-Ipsos poll has found.
Although three in four remain confident about the overall safety of foods, the poll found that consumers overwhelmingly support setting up a tracing system for produce in the wake of the salmonella outbreak first linked to tomatoes and, now, hot peppers.
Eighty-six percent said produce should be labeled so it can be tracked through layers of processors, packers and shippers, all the way back to the farm. The lack of such a system frustrated disease detectives working on the salmonella outbreak. Although federal officials lifted the tomato warning Thursday, the cause of the outbreak remains unknown.
The poll found that 80% of Americans said they would support new federal standards for fresh produce. Meat and poultry have long been subject to enforceable federal safeguards, but fruits and vegetables are not, although produce increasingly is being implicated in outbreaks.
Christy Taylor, a first-grade teacher from Sacramento, Calif., said she has all but given up on supermarket produce and is buying most of her fresh fruits and vegetables at the local farmers' market instead.
"I see the same farmers every single week," said Taylor, 30, the mother of 2-year-old twin girls. "You meet the people and you see where the (produce) is coming from."
Her twins love tomatoes, she said, and chomp on them as if they were apples. But until the mystery of the tainted tomatoes is solved, "I feel a little bit more comfortable, a little more safe, doing the local farmers' market," Taylor said.
In addition to the salmonella outbreak, this year has seen the largest ground beef recall in history, raising consumer concerns reflected in the poll.
Forty-six percent said they were worried they might get sick from eating contaminated food and that they have avoided foods because of safety warnings that they normally would have purchased. Twenty-nine% have thrown out food earlier than usual and 14% have returned food to the store.
Such a level of uneasiness among consumers is "very significant," said Michael R. Taylor, a former senior federal food safety official who now teaches at George Washington University.
"When you have almost half the population avoiding certain foods because of safety concerns, that's very significant from the standpoint of economic impact for the people selling the food, and from the standpoint of peace of mind for consumers," said Taylor. Tomato growers say they have lost more than $100 million as a result of the current salmonella outbreak, which has sickened more than 1,200 people in 42 states since April.
The poll also found gender, racial and economic gaps on attitudes about food safety. Women, who do most of the shopping, were more concerned than men. For example, 39% of men said they were "very confident" that the food they buy is safe, but only 23% of women said they felt that way. However, men and women agreed on the need for better federal oversight.
"We've got to protect our food supply," said Stephan Weiss, 58, of West Linn, Ore., who runs a small engraving and embroidery business. "And if more inspectors are going to prevent people from getting sick and dying, then it's worth it."
People with lower incomes were less confident in food safety, as were minorities. Nearly half of Hispanics had little or no confidence in the safety of the food they buy.
In Congress, a leading advocate of food safety reforms said the industry would do well to listen to consumers on the need for tracing.
"We live in an age of technology where you can bar-code a banana," said Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill. "We've got to work this through with the industry and come up with something that's reasonable. The more confidence consumers have, the more goods they will purchase."
While the produce industry agrees that federal standards for preventing contamination are necessary, there is no consensus on a mandatory tracing system. Cost is a concern, especially for smaller companies.
The poll also found that 56% of consumers do not believe the government has enough inspectors to scrutinize food imports. If more are needed for imports and domestic produce, 70% said the cost should be covered through fees on industry. That echoes a proposal by Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
The telephone poll of 1,000 adults was conducted July 10-14 and has a sampling error margin of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points for the overall sample.
由于受污染土豆惊吓之困扰，近一半美国人担心自己可能因食用受污染食物而致病，并避免购买原来通常购买的食物，这是来自美联社益普索的一项研究之发现。
尽管四分之三的人仍然对整体食品安全问题充满信心，调查发现消费者压倒性地支持建立跟踪系统，在首次土豆沙门氏菌事件爆发后，现在又是红辣椒。
86％的受访者称农产品应该贴标签，这样才能够进行逐层追踪，追溯处理者、包装者、运输方，最后追踪到农场。此系统的缺失使得无法进行土豆沙门氏菌爆发的疾病检测。尽管联邦政府官员周四提出土豆预警，而爆发事件的原因仍未可知。
调查发现80％的美国人称他们愿意支持新的新鲜农产品的新联邦标准。猪肉与牛肉受强制性联邦保护措施管制，但水果和蔬菜均没有相应管制措施，而农产品正越来越多地被发现流行性爆发。
加州Sacramento一级教师Christy Taylor说，她现在差不多放弃了超市农产品，转而到地方农产品市场去购买新鲜水果蔬菜。
“我每一周到同一些农场去”，这位年纪30岁，作为两岁双胞胎女儿的母亲Taylor说。“你会见这些人并知道这些农产品来自哪儿。”
她的双胞胎女儿钟爱吃土豆，她说，喜欢把土豆当苹果一样咬来吃。但在污染土豆事件解决前，“我亲自去农场买东西，这样我会感觉安稳一些，安全一些。”她这样说。
调查发现，除沙门氏菌事件爆发，本年度再次发生历史上最大的牛肉产品召回事件，进一步引起消费者强烈关注，
46％的受访者称他们担心由于食用污染食品而致命，并称由于安全警告，他们放弃了一些原来常常购买的食品。29％的人会比以前提前扔掉食品，14％的人已把食品退还商店。
消费者中这种不安程度非常严重，Michael R. Taylor说，他是前联邦食品安全官员，现在是乔治华盛顿大学老师。
“如果有近一半的人由于安全担忧回避某些食品，站在销售食品方来说，经济影响非常严重，站在消费者内心安全的角度来看也是如此。”Taylor称。土豆种植者称，最近的土豆沙门氏菌事件使他们遭受了1亿多美元的损失，沙门氏菌事件自四月以来已致使42个州内的1200多人致病。
调查同时发现有关食品安全问题的态度，存在性别、种族与经济方面的差异。购物最多的女性比男性更为关注。比如，39％的男性称他们对所购买的食品安全性很有信心，但只有23％的女性这样觉得。不过，男性与女性一致同意需要进行更好的联邦监察。
“我们必须�；の颐堑氖称饭┯�”，来自West Linn, Ore的58岁的小型刺乡厂业主Stephan Weiss说。“而如果投入更多的检测人员可以使人们免于生病甚至死亡，那么这都是值得的。”
低收入人群对食品安全信心较低，比如少数民族。近一半移民种族对所购买的食品安全几乎没有信心。
国会中，一项有关食品安全的主要主张称，行业将在跟踪需要方面做好倾听消费者心声的工作。
“我们生活在一个科技时代，连一根香蕉也可以打上条形码。”Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill说。“我们应该与行业一起完成这项工作，提出一些合理的东西。消费者越有信心，才会购买更多商品。”
尽管农产品行业认同防止污染的联邦标准是必要的，但没有达成强制性跟踪系统的共识。成本是一个考虑，尤其对小公司来说。
调查还发现56％的消费者不相信政府的监测人员足够进行进口食品的检查。如果进口与国内农产品需要更多监测人员，70％的受访者称成本可以通过行业收费解决。这个意见得到住宅能源与商业委员会主席Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich的回应，为此提出了一个建议方案。
对1000名成年进行的电话调查是7月10－14间进行的，其样本误差为总样本的（＋/－）3.1％。
