Amidst the uncertainty caused by the Trump tariffs, the vicissitudes of climate change, and the over-all inflation picture, consumer trust in the safety of their food is at an all-time low. And experts warn, it’s not just a tempest in a teapot…
A new Gallup poll reveals consumer confidence in grocery store food has dropped below 70 percent for the first time. What’s more, consumers say they’re much more likely to trash certain foods or not by them at all, anymore…
Lowest level ever
The poll found only 65 percent of consumers were ‘very’ or ‘somewhat’ confident that food sold at most grocery stores is safe to eat. Last year at this time, the number was 73 percent. And even that was way below the 81 percent confidence level reported in 2019.
Government oversight in question
The central issue behind the plummeting consumer confidence numbers appears to be declining trust in the regulatory and inspection systems that are supposed to keep the US food supply safe
The trigger is believed to have been the cyclospora food poisoning outbreak this past summer, which sickened more than 12,000 people and sent sales of all produce into a tailspin.
“It’s not that they [the Trump administration] are necessarily choosing to harm the system,” said Daniel Jernigan, who recently resigned as head of the FDA’s National Center for Emerging and Zoo-notic Infectious Diseases in August. “It’s that all of these cuts that are not coherent are all working against each other, and therefore you end up with a system that’s just not functioning well.”
As a consequence, the lag between the discovery of an outbreak and the mandated recall of the food products in question is growing dangerously longer.
“A report from consumer watchdog Public Interest Research Group found that many of the most serious outbreaks in 2025 involved[significant] time lags between illnesses and recalls,” Food Dive reports. “Other recalls were either not publicly announced or closed with few details.”
Bad for everyone
The result is, consumers have cut way back on produce sales of all kinds, and have tossed record amounts of produce they had already bought ‘just in case’.
The follow-on effects include significantly reduced sales for the produce industry. And many ordinary Americans are consuming reduced amounts of fresh, healthy produce.
My take
Here’s a great example of just how far-reaching and damaging US President Donald Trump’s leader-ship and policy changes at key government agencies have been.
And the FDA is just one of dozens of departments and agencies Trump has stirred up. We’ll probably never know just HOW disruptive – and potentially disastrous – the President’s meddling has been…
Maggie J.