TORONTO - Almost two-thirds of Canadians wish they had more information about food safety and how to protect themselves from foods that pose a health risk, suggests a study commissioned by the federal government.
And 30 per cent of respondents think there's a higher risk of consuming contaminated foods today compared to two years ago.
The report was prepared for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency by Leger Marketing and posted online this month.
Telephone surveys were done in November last year and March of this year, in addition to six two-hour focus groups held in Toronto, Edmonton and Montreal in February to explore various issues.
The 109-page report found that 89 per cent of those surveyed are "moderately confident" in the food system. Quebecers and residents of British Columbia have the least confidence in the system, while people in Saskatchewan and Manitoba have the most confidence.
"There are concerns that the Canadian food safety system is over-burdened and there is some confusion among Canadians about how the system works," the report stated among its conclusions.
Sixty-three per cent of respondents agreed that recalls are addressed in a timely manner and 64 per cent felt the government has done a good job of keeping Canadians informed of relevant food safety issues.
In 2008, food safety was in the news because of a Listeria outbreak that left 23 people dead. It was linked to Toronto-based Maple Leaf Foods Inc., and led to a large recall of meat.
"As time passes, the impact of the Maple Leaf recall on the thoughts and opinions regarding Canadian food safety has decreased," the report stated.
"While generally split on whether or not a recall means the system has worked, or the system did not work, Canadians do realize that the low number of serious events is due in some part to the strength of the system. Overall a large majority understand recalls happen even with the best of efforts to avoid them."
Sylvain Charlebois, a professor in food distribution and food policies at the University of Guelph, said he's not surprised that Canadians are eager for more information.
"Overall there's this appetite -- no pun intended -- for consumers to really, really get more information about food systems in general, how food systems actually work, where food is coming from," he said.
In the focus groups, those who usually try to buy local products said it was a way of controlling what they consumed, with one participant claiming to make efforts to "avoid anything from China." Some people expressed doubt about whether Canada could do anything to control food safety procedures in other countries.
In the survey, though, 78 per cent said they believe imported foods must meet the same standards as domestic foods.
Charlebois leads a group of researchers in comparing countries on food safety performance. He noted that the United States government has full-time employees in China doing inspections and evaluating risk.
"That's something that we're not doing in Canada and maybe that's something that we should be considering in the future," said Charlebois, who is a member of an expert advisory group to the CFIA.
"And of course working with the CFIA, it is something that I do encourage them to do, but that comes at a cost."
He said many Canadians believe food labelling practices aren't transparent enough, although identification of allergens, for example, is much clearer than before.
The CFIA has to be careful about how it conveys risk to the public because it has to work with industry as it protects the interests of the public, Charlebois said.
"It's very difficult to do both at the same time. And that's why we've seen in Europe and other places around the world ... the creation of separate agencies which their sole responsibility is to inform the public on a regular basis."
Charlebois believes Canada needs something like this, but it "would cost money, and who's willing to pay?"
Meanwhile, consumers are changing, prompting a slow but sure evolution in the food industry, he said.
"Do Canadians trust our food supplies? Absolutely I think they do," he said.
"Because demand is slowly becoming more fragmented than ever, meaning a lot of people are attracted to local foods, they're attracted to organic products or attracted to fair trade, they're attracted to producers that treat their animals ethically, you see that more and more consumers are interested in the food industry."
Part of the report dealt with food in the home, and almost all respondents indicated they take proper care in their handling of food to prevent contamination.
However, only 35 per cent said they regularly used a digital thermometer to check the internal temperature when cooking meat and poultry.
Rick Holley, a professor of food safety and microbiology at the University of Manitoba, said the reality is that food service is the No. 1 setting in which food becomes contaminated and causes foodborne illness, and the home kitchen is second.
"So we consumers are doing it to ourselves more frequently than we really think, and that comes out in answers to questions with respect to the use of meat thermometers and some other questions that are part of the survey," he noted.
Between 11 million and 13 million Canadians get sick every year because of foodborne bacteria, statistics show.
"What that means is we get sick from foodborne illness once every three years. So you've got a child who's nine years old or a grandchild, (he's) going to be ill three times."
If one of those events involves a nasty E. coli bacteria, it could be deadly, he added.
Holley said he's not seeing any major initiatives to gather more comprehensive data on how many people get sick, or why, from contaminated food in Canada.
"Until such time as we have these data, we're really not going to be able to find solutions. If we don't know what's making us sick, how can we make any progress to reducing that frequency?"
Brenda Watson, executive director of the Canadian Partnership for Food Safety Education, said consumers need to make sure perishable foods are refrigerated properly at 4 C or lower, and they should know how to use a food thermometer, along with being aware of the internal cooking temperatures for different foods.
Recently, she said she's been getting a slew of inquiries about home canning, "probably because of the month of the year it is and the state of the economy."
Members of her group include "everyone from the farm gate to the dinner plate."
"I think it's very concerning to everyone every time there's some kind of an outbreak or people get sick," she said. "None of us want to see that happen. ... they continue to implement best practices and raise the bar, implementing and trying new things and being good translators of the information they've learned."
Holley said Canada needs to put in place and enforce systems to verify that legislated food safety programs are being followed.
"I don't think that there's enough being done in this area in Canada right now."
Watson recommended that consumers who want more information on food safety check the organization's two websites: canfightbac.org and befoodsafe.ca.
Another source of information is the website www.foodsafety.gc.ca -- launched by the government in February 2010. It includes information on recalls, warnings, safe food handling, food poisoning, labelling and allergens. About 25 per cent of respondents in the survey were aware of the website, and about 40 per cent of those had been to the site.
The Leger Marketing contract was valued at $104,261. Each survey had 1,000 respondents, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
