Canadian Consumer Concerns About Food Safety Issues and Confidence in Food Products: Comparison of Beef and Pork

In examining consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for food attributes, one approach is to use economic experiments, sometimes associated with consumers sensory testing. In this particular research project different types of pork chops are examined to identify consumer WTP for pork chop credence attributes such as traditionally raised, Canadian Pork labelled or identified as coming from a farm with on farm food safety accreditation (CQA). However, the results of the research are only useful for the national industry if the participants’ values can be extrapolated to the Canadian population. The participants in the research completed a survey that was similar in many respects to a national on-line survey completed in Canada two months earlier. Comparing the responses from the pork study to the national on line survey can help identify how different the respondents are. The pork study participants self studied to be part of a consumers panel for the Alberta Food Product Testing Centre in Edmonton. Respondents in both groups have less confidence in pork relative to other food products. Respondents in the pork survey were mostly concerned about antibiotics in meat while national survey respondents were mostly concerned about animals genetically modified for meat, egg or dairy production. In terms of human health issues, pork survey respondents were mostly concerned about while national survey respondents were more concerned about unhealthy eating. Respondents in the pork survey had lower risk perception scores for pork and were more willing to accept the risks of eating pork than the national panel assessed either beef or chicken.