Gallup released new polling today and the numbers should make everyone in government and the food industry very uncomfortable.
Only 65 percent of Americans are now very or somewhat confident that food sold in grocery stores is safe to eat. That is the lowest Gallup has ever recorded, down from 73 percent last year and 81 percent in 2019. Confidence in the federal government to ensure food safety is worse: 47 percent, a record low, down from 68 percent in 2019 and 85 percent back in 2004. For the first time, a majority of Americans have little or no confidence in the government to keep their food safe.
And people are acting on it. Seventy-three percent say they avoided certain brands or types of food in the past year because of a recall or advisory, up from 53 percent in 2024. Forty-five percent threw out or returned food. And 42 percent say they worried that something they ate may have been contaminated, a trend high.
Gallup ties the drop to the Cyclospora outbreak that ran from June until it was declared over on September 11, which Gallup describes as the largest in U.S. history, with more than 12,000 sick across 21 states. Those of us who have been tracking state health department numbers know the real count was far higher. That gap is part of the problem.
Gallup also found that confidence in the government is sharply split by party: 70 percent of Republicans are confident, 30 percent of Democrats. But here is the part that matters most to me: the behavior is not partisan. Large majorities of Republicans (63 percent), independents (73 percent) and Democrats (81 percent) all say they have avoided foods because of recalls. Salmonella, E. coli and Cyclospora do not check voter registration. Neither should food safety policy.
I have been doing this work since the Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak in 1993. Confidence is not restored by press releases. It is restored by transparency, by prevention, and by accountability. Here are 10 things I would do, starting now:
- Tell people where recalled food went. When FDA issues a Class I recall, consumers should be able to see the list of retail stores that received the product. Right now, people are told to check their refrigerators for a lot code they will never find. I have a citizen petition pending at FDA asking for exactly this.
- Name the names. When FDA or CDC links an outbreak to a company, the identity of that company should not be treated as confidential business information. Hiding who made people sick protects no one but the company. My second petition asks FDA to stop doing it.
- Count the sick. You cannot fix what you will not measure. CDC should restore full FoodNet surveillance of all the pathogens it once tracked, starting with Cyclospora. An outbreak that state health departments count at many times the federal number is a surveillance failure.
- Stop delaying traceability. The FSMA food traceability rule was supposed to let regulators trace contaminated produce in days, not weeks. Congress pushed compliance to 2028. Every outbreak between now and then will be slower to solve than it needed to be.
- Find the source, not just the vehicle. Leafy greens outbreaks keep pointing back to nearby cattle operations. FDA should sample at the animal feeding operations adjacent to implicated fields during outbreak investigations. That is my third petition.
- Fund the people who do the work. FDA and USDA inspectors, and especially state and local health departments, are the ones who find outbreaks and stop them. Cutting their budgets and staff and then expressing surprise when outbreaks get bigger is not a policy.
- Make Salmonella in poultry an adulterant.
USDA had a framework to keep the most dangerous Salmonella levels out of raw poultry and withdrew it. E. coli O157:H7 has been an adulterant in ground beef since 1994, and the industry adapted. Poultry can too. - Warn people about high-risk foods. Some foods carry inherent risk that consumers deserve to know about at the point of purchase. I am finishing citizen petitions seeking warning labels on raw milk cheese and raw sprouts, and I welcome comments through October 15.
- Hold executives accountable. Ten people died in the Boar’s Head Listeria outbreak. Where are the DOJ and USDA Inspector General investigations? Stewart Parnell went to prison for knowingly shipping Salmonella-tainted peanut products. Nothing focuses a boardroom on food safety like the prospect of a federal courtroom.
- Take the politics out of it. Food safety should not rise and fall with whoever is in the White House. A single, independent, adequately funded food safety agency, instead of a patchwork split across FDA, USDA and others, would serve every American regardless of party.
I have said for years that I would be happy to be put out of business. The Gallup numbers tell me the public would be happy too. Lost confidence is earned back the same way it was lost – one outbreak at a time. It is time government and industry started earning it.
