‘I don’t go in for all that scaremongering’: Parental Attitudes to Food Safety Risk

Food risks have a special standing in people’s risk appraisals (Knox 2000) due to the central role which food plays in family life. Concern about food risks has steadily increased in the last few decades (Payson 1994). A survey conducted by the international market research company Ipsos-Reid (Tucker et al. 2006) found that the majority of respondents in 19 countries felt their food is less safe that it was ten years ago. In recent years consumers have become generally uncertain about the safety and quality of their food and their perceptions often differ substantially from that of experts (Verbeke et al. 2007). There is evidence to suggest that consumers expect all food to be intrinsically safe and would never knowingly purchase or consume unsafe food, and this is particularly evident in terms of protecting and nurturing the family. Nevertheless, although under normal conditions the majority of consumers are not worried about food safety, or at least accept the inherent low level risk, the occurrence of a food safety incident may result in consumer concern and anxiety (Verbeke et al. 2007).