Forty Percent of Americans Ignore Food Recalls

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J.—A recent Rutgers’ Food Policy Institute (FPI) study today reveals that approximately 60 percent of Americans reported checking their homes for recalled food and only 10 percent said they had ever found a recalled food product.

The study was based on a survey of 1,101 Americans interviewed by telephone from Aug. 4 to Sept. 24, 2008.

Most respondents said they pay a great deal of attention to food recalls and, when they learn about them, tell many other people. But 40 percent of these consumers think that the foods they purchase are less likely to be recalled than those purchased by others, appearing to believe that food recalls just don’t apply to them.

“Getting consumers to pay attention to news about recalls isn’t the hard part," said William K. Hallman, the director of FPI, lead author of the study report and professor of human ecology at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. “It’s getting them to take the step of actually looking for recalled food products in their homes.”

Hallman said personalizing communications about food recalls may be the way to overcome the sense that the messages are meant for someone else. Providing consumers with recall information about specific products they have purchased makes it harder for them to ignore the advice to look for the recalled items.