Consumer Reactions to Food Safety Crises

Abstract

Improving nutrition is essentially a process of encouraging people to make healthful choices that improve their well-being (Wansink, 2005). What happens, however, when we believe contamination, terrorism, or a genetic incidence threatens a part of the food supply? Sometimes crises influence the recall, redesign, and communication eVorts of individual companies (such as Tylenol, Perrier, Pilgrim’s Pride). Others, such as the threat of "mad cow" disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE) in beef can compromise an entire industry.