FDA Updates Food Safety Survey With Emerging Concerns

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration plans to “explore emerging consumer food safety topics” in their new Food Safety Survey.  The survey, which was last conducted in 2010, is used to measure consumers’ knowledge about food safety, trends in food-safety habits and attitudes about technologies such as food irradiation and biotechnology.  The latest version will include many of the same questions and topics as previous surveys, but will also be updated to include topics such as consumer understanding of mechanically tenderized beef, awareness of foodborne pathogens such as Toxoplasma gondii, and awareness of the risks associated with eating raw sprouts.  A growing concern is the changing epidemiology of listeriosis, which hits adults older than 60 hard. Increasing susceptibility could be due to increased use of immunocompromising medications, so FDA plans to ask that age group about their usage of such medications to get a better understanding of the issue.  The survey will sample 4,000 adults on both landlines and cell phones. The proposal is open to public comment until Dec. 31.