Consumers Confident in Canadian Food Supply

CANADA - Research conducted by Ipsos Reid shows Canadian Consumers continue to have an extremely high level of confidence in the quality and safety of Canadian food products, writes Bruce Cochrane.
calendar icon 31 October 2007
clock icon 3 minute read

In an effort to better understand consumer perceptions of the Canadian food supply chain, from production and processing to retail, Ipsos Reid questioned 16 hundred grocery purchasers across Canada.

The 2006 survey was a follow-up to a benchmark study conducted on behalf of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in 2004.

Ipsos Reid senior research manager Scott Patton says the studies looked at top of mind considerations when people choose food for their homes and when dinning out, consumer perceptions of food quality and safety and perceptions of food quality and safety initiatives underway or planned.

Scott Patton-Ipsos Reid

The key findings are, at a high level, Canadians in 2004 told us that they were extremely confident in the quality and safety of Canadian produced food and in the wave two tracking in 2006 that had not changed.

The confidence in safety and quality had remained very high.

We're looking at nine in ten Canadian grocery shoppers were confident that Canadian food was of high quality and was safe.

So it's really very high confidence.

They have an extreme amount of trust in the system, trust that the regulations and standards are in place but there is also an indication of some concern that, if those systems slip or miss, that it could have a negative effect on the health of the population.

Consumers are making this connection between what they put in their mouth and what their body is doing.

So that connection between diet and health is very much being made by consumers so this is something that again we really need to be aware of in the system overall.


Patton says the information gathered will be used to track changes in consumers attitudes and direct future policy regarding food safety and quality.

He notes follow-up studies are planned for 2008.

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