Although the United States still boasts the safest food supply in the world, consumers are more wary of the products they buy and eat.

In a survey released last year, the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) found that just 66 percent of shoppers are confident that the food they buy at grocery stores is safe. This published finding represented a 16 percent decline from the previous year and the lowest rating in the annual survey in nearly 20 years.

Alarmingly, 38 percent of the respondents reported they had ceased buying produce, meat, poultry and other food commodities due to outbreaks and recalls that were largely caused by pathogenic contamination. It’s interesting to note that FMI’s survey was conducted in January 2007, when much of the country’s attention was focused on a major E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in spinach grown in California. Then again, the survey results were released four months prior to the Topps’ beef recall involving 21.7 million pounds of E. coli contaminated products. 

Faced with a double-barrel threat of receding consumer confidence and mounting congressional demands for stricter regulatory oversight, the food industry is under the gun to control pathogens and improve product safety by whatever means necessary. In the high-stakes battle against Listeria moncoytogenes, E. coli and other potentially deadly pathogens, accurate and reliable analytical testing methods are a requisite tool.