Sécurité sanitaire des aliments : fausse alerte et vraie crise

Food Safety: False Alert and True Crisis by Éric Cahuzac, Daniel Hassan and Sylvette Monier Dilhan In recent years, lower consumer confidence in food safety has encouraged false alerts which have sometimes led to actual crises. This paper studies a crisis due to an alert concerning the reported presence of listeria in a brand of raw milk camembert. The investigation relies on individual data. Two results of the economics of risk are confirmed. First, information has asymmetric effects, depending on its positive or negative aspects. Second, one-off alerts have only temporary effects on consumption. Further, neither educational attainment nor consumer habits played any role in the impact of the crisis.