Differences in Household Attitudes on Food Defense and Food Safety: An International Comparison

This paper reports results from a large, 6-nation, internet based survey of consumer attitudes toward food safety and food defense administered during the fall of 2008. Responses were obtained from separate samples of approximately 1000 each in Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, the U.K., and the U.S. Food defense was generally a greater concern, and respondents were less confident that their food supply was well protected against terrorist attack than they were that their food was safe from contamination from naturally occurring pathogens. Respondents also believed a greater percentage of national food protection budgets should be spent on food safety rather than food defense. Processors are considered most responsible for both food safety and food defense, with government also playing a major role in food defense.