Consumers Approve of FDA Food Safety Performance

FDA Consumer, March, 2001

Consumers are still satisfied with FDA's performance in food labeling and with its consumer alerts on food safety issues, according to the second government-wide customer satisfaction survey released in December. Consumers also continue to trust FDA to ensure food safety. The agency received an index score of 68, just slightly above last year's rating.

Survey questions targeted principal grocery shoppers and food preparers, and asked about FDA's mission to ensure food safety, the usefulness and clarity of nutrition labeling, customer awareness, and views of effectiveness of inspecting, testing, and labeling efforts. As in the 1999 report, the survey calls for an increase in public awareness of how FDA food safety activities affect consumers.

Initiated last year by the National Partnership for Reinventing Government, this survey was developed to measure how well key government agencies serve the public and to set a baseline for measuring customer satisfaction. The University of Michigan conducted the survey using a model established for the American Customer Satisfaction Index, which measures satisfaction with various industries.