Farm-Scape is sponsored by Manitoba Pork Council and Sask Pork Play Audio Farm-Scape is a Wonderworks Canada production and is distributed courtesy of Manitoba Pork Council and Sask Pork.

Farm-Scape, Episode 1405

Canada's largest market research and public affairs company says surveys conducted over the past two years show Canadian consumers have become much more concerned with food safety issues.

Surveys conducted by Ipsos-Reid during 2002 and 2003 show, when it comes to food, Canadian consumers are thinking about everything from nutrition and their own state of health to obesity to the safety of the food supply.

Ipsos-Reid Agrifood Division Vice President Susan Jones says food safety has become a big concern among Canadians and is more on the mind of consumers than it was in the past.

"We have two thirds of Canadians telling us that they are concerned about the safety of the food they eat but, at the same time, Canadians feel pretty confident about food safety.

80 percent of us tell us that they're completely or somewhat confident that their food is safe. We have kind of two almost conflicting things.

It is a big topic, it's an issue of concern but so far Canadians are pretty confident that the regulatory system that we have here in Canada is helping to protect their health.

Eight in 10 tell us that the food industry is well regulated for the protection of human health. For those Canadian that are not so comfortable that their food is safe, when we ask them what they want, primarily what they talk about is more information.

Consumers today are quite educated. They can get information from a variety of sources and they want to know what's going on and they want information on the labels and they just want more access to information"

Jones expects food safety to remain in the spot light in the future. She says consumers are highly educated and are well aware of such problems as pathogens entering the water supply and animal disease issues such as mad cow disease.

She says Canadian consumers are going to continue to be concerned about food safety and they're going to want the assurances that their food is safe.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.