The latest issue of the Food Demand Survey (FooDS) is up.
Interestingly, consumers reported hearing less in the news about all 16 food issues we track in November relative to October. The drop was particularly dramatic for Salmonella, which is likely a result of the the stories in the news last month related to foodborne illness from poultry. There was an associated drop in concern for Salmonella and an almost 5% drop in the number of people reporting to have had food poisoning.
One interesting issue relates to awareness and concern for lean fine textured ground beef. Although consumers reported hearing less about it in the news, their stated level of concern jumped 4.62% (interestingly concern for "pink slime" only rose 2.02%). The change may be due Cargill's announcement to label lean fine textured beef.
Consumer willingness-to-pay for most food products was up in November, although less so for higher value cuts such as steak and pork chops.