A Gallup poll has found that U.S. consumers’ confidence in the federal government’s ability to ensure food safety has hit a record low.

Gallup has been measuring Americans’ trust in government assurance of food safety since 1999. The most recent figures, collected in July 2024 as part of Gallup’s annual Consumption Habits Poll, show that only 57 percent of U.S. adults have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence in the government’s ability to ensure food safety. This is down 11 percentage points since Gallup’s last measurement in 2019.

Additionally, 14 percent of 2024 respondents reported having no confidence at all in federal food safety regulation, and 28 percent said they do not have much confidence.

In contrast, between 1996 and 2006, approximately eight in ten Americans expressed confidence in the federal government’s food safety oversight, which dropped to seven in ten after a major Salmonella outbreak in 2007. That level of confidence remained steady—until now.

Today, Republicans are the least confident in U.S. food safety oversight, with 50 percent saying they have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence (down from 77 percent in 2019). Among Independents, 52 percent expressed a level of confidence (down from 63 percent in 2019).

Conversely, confidence among Democrats increased from 65 percent in 2019 to 74 percent in 2024.

Consumers’ Views About the Safety of Food at Retail

Other findings from the Gallup survey relate to U.S. consumers’ trust in food at grocery stores. In 2024, 72 percent expressed a level of confidence in the safety of foods sold at grocery stores, compared to 81 percent in 2019. Most confident were Democrats (80 percent), as well as U.S. adults with an annual household income of $100,000 or more (78 percent) and college graduates (75 percent). In contrast, Republicans (73 percent), those with a high school education or less (69 percent), and Americans aged 18–34 (62 percent) expressed the least confidence.

Americans’ Responses to Food Recalls

The Gallup poll also evaluated U.S. consumers’ responses to food recalls.

In June 2024 alone, just prior to Gallup’s collection of survey responses, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued 19 food recall alerts. Also, according to Gallup, the U.S. government had issued alerts for more than 330 food recalls in all of 2019. In the first six months of 2024 alone, there were 578 food product recalls.

Among poll respondents, 37 percent reported having thrown out or returned food in the past year due to a food recall or safety advisory. More than half (53 percent) of U.S. consumers said they have avoided buying certain brands or types of food because of a recall or advisory, and a quarter (26 percent) say they have worried that they may have eaten contaminated food.

At the same time, fewer respondents in 2024 (53 percent) compared to 2007 (62 percent) said they avoided buying certain foods due to a recall. There has not been a significant change over time in the percent of people who report being worried about eating contaminated food.

Parents’ Confidence in Food Safety Declines: Factors That Could Have Shaken Their Faith

Aside from political parties, confidence has declined in almost all demographic subgroups. Most significantly, confidence among parents of young children dropped from 67 percent in 2019 to 49 percent today. Parents and non-parents previously held similar levels of faith in the government’s ability to ensure food safety, but in 2024, parents are much less confident than their child-free counterparts.

Since 2019, several significant food safety incidents affecting foods intended for babies and young children occurred nationwide. For example, in the infant formula crisis of 2022, the U.S. faced a critical shortage of infant formula following infant illnesses and a recall of product contaminated with Cronobacter sakazakii, resulting in the temporary shutdown of Abbott Nutrition’s Sturgis, Michigan facility, a major producer of formula in the U.S. Additionally, in 2023, hundreds of children experienced lead poisoning after consuming applesauce pouches made with tainted imported cinnamon.

These food safety emergencies aside, the “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) movement, which began as a grassroots movement largely championed by mothers, has taken hold at the White House after being adopted by U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.). A major talking point of MAHA is that the federal government has long failed to protect Americans from “harmful” food additives and ingredients.

Even prior to MAHA’s elevation at the White House, states like California began questioning the federal government’s ability to protect food safety, taking matters into their own hands by passing state-level additives bans and food regulations. Specifically, the California Food Safety Act, which became law in October 2023, as well as the 2024 California School Food Safety Act, kicked off a wave of copycat bills being introduced and passed across the U.S.