K-STATE RESEARCHER SAYS CONSUMERS WILL PAY MORE FOR 'SAFE FOOD'

MANHATTAN -- Summer picnics and barbecues can be fun if the food is free of disease. A Kansas State University agricultural economist and researcher says because of outbreaks of salmonella and E. coli in recent years, consumers are willing to pay more money at the grocery store for safer meat.

"Consumers certainly are concerned about some of the products that they eat, especially ground beef," said Sean Fox, associate professor agricultural economics. "The research that we've done suggests that consumers are in general willing to pay a couple of cents extra for a safer product.

"When we do studies we survey people and we put people in an experimental setting where they are forced to pay more," he said. "We've found that say 50 percent of people will pay an extra 10-20 percent for that margin of safety."

Fox's research has also looked at consumers' perceptions of safety processes like steam pasteurization of carcasses and food irradiation. He says, in general, people are willing to pay for the additional safety no matter how that safety is achieved.

"There's no question that food irradiation is safe," said Fox. "In fact, irradiated ground beef is a far safer product than ground beef that has not been irradiated.

"The problem is that irradiation is a concept that some people can be scared away from, and that's what happens when they read some of the negative descriptions of irradiation that are out there," he said.

According to Fox, there are some areas of the country, particularly in the Northeast and on the West Coast, where the irradiation process is not looked on favorably by the public. But in general, he said, most of the country, including Kansas, find irradiation acceptable and are willing to pay more for safe food.

"A product that has been irradiated is required to be labeled with the irradiation logo and the words, 'treated by irradiation,'" Fox said. "At the same time there are other products out there that aren't necessarily labeled, but have come through processes that have various safety enhancements built into them.

"An example of that might be steam pasteurization of beef carcasses where over 99 percent of the bacteria on the carcass are killed before the carcass goes for fabrication," he said. "And the ground beef that comes out through that process is probably safer than ground beef from carcasses that have not been steam pasteurized."

Although irradiated ground beef has hit supermarkets in some parts of the country, like Minnesota and Iowa, it is still not on sale in Kansas. However, Fox anticipates that by next summer Kansas consumers will see irradiated ground beef available.

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For more information contact Sean Fox at 785-532-4446.

July 2000