Food safety concerns and food defense support: a cross-cultural study

Consumers face the risk that their food is unsafe because of natural and accidental contamination (traditional food safety problems) or deliberate contamination (food defense problems). Coordinated international efforts with leadership from developed countries could help reduce these food risks. If consumers within or between countries have different attitudes about the risks, it may be difficult to generate sufficient political support for building an international food safety system. A unique consumer survey of adults in the US, the UK, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Japan identified consumer attitudes about traditional food safety and food defense. Concerns about traditional food safety, confidence in the system to prevent intentional contamination, and funding allocations between food safety and food defense were examined in models with two sets of cultural control measures. Many people perceived food safety to be different from food defense. Food safety concerns were linked to gender, age, presence of children, education, income, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity. Food defense confidence was associated with gender, age, power distance, and uncertainty avoidance. Funding allocations were examined in two models and power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and individualism were significant. Although it was expected that low concerns about food safety and low confidence in food defense would increase the allocation share for food defense, this was not confirmed in the data. Many differences were noted between countries, showing the importance of culture for understanding attitudes toward food risks. Although both sets of cultural measures made significant contributions, neither was judged to be superior to country dummy variables. Given the variations found in attitudes toward food safety and food defense, creating an international solution to reduce food risks will be difficult.