Americans' Confidence in Food Safety Drops to New Low

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Americans’ confidence that food sold at most grocery stores is safe to eat has fallen to its lowest level Gallup has recorded, with 65% now very or somewhat confident. That is down from 73% last year and 72% in 2024, and well below the 81% recorded in 2019.

The overall 16-percentage-point decline in confidence since 2019 reflects decreases in both the “very confident” group, from 31% to 23%, and the “somewhat confident” group, from 50% to 42%. Meanwhile, the share who are “not too confident” or “not at all confident” has risen from 18% to 34%.

This year’s survey was conducted as a major U.S. cyclospora outbreak that began in June started to wane and officially ended on Sept. 11. Likewise, the 2024 reading came amid numerous food recalls and serious illnesses linked to contaminated produce and other foods.

Although much of the news coverage of the recent food scare focused on produce at certain restaurants, Americans rate the safety of restaurant and grocery food similarly. In Gallup’s first measure of restaurant food safety, about two-thirds are very (20%) or somewhat (46%) confident that food at most restaurants is safe to eat, while 33% are not too or not at all confident.

Confidence in the Federal Government Also at a Low

Alongside declining confidence in grocery store food safety, Americans have become less confident in the federal government’s ability to ensure the safety of the U.S. food supply.

Currently, 47% of U.S. adults have a great deal (11%) or a fair amount (36%) of confidence in the federal government to ensure food safety, a record low. That is down from 53% last year and 68% in 2019, and well below the 2004 high of 85%. For the first time, a majority of Americans have not much (32%) or no confidence at all (21%) in the government to ensure food safety.

More Americans Reacting to Food Safety Warnings

The latest poll also updated a question asking Americans whether they had taken each of three steps within the past year in response to a government food safety advisory or product recall.

The most common, and the one that has increased the most since 2024, is avoiding purchasing certain brands or types of food. Seventy-three percent of U.S. adults say they have done this in the past year, up 20 points from 53% saying so in 2024. The current figure also exceeds the percentages avoiding certain foods in 2007 (62%) and 2008 (60%), when significant food safety issues were in the news.

Additionally, 45% of Americans say they have thrown out or returned a food product to the store in the past year, up from 37% in 2024 and slightly higher than the 40% found in 2007. Similarly, a trend-high 42%, up from 26% in 2024, say they have worried that something they ate may have been contaminated.

Shifts in Confidence More Polarized Than Increases in Food Precautions

The decline in confidence in the safety of grocery store food since last year is concentrated among Democrats and independents, while Republicans have become more confident. Democrats' confidence that grocery store food is safe has fallen 14 points to 66%, while Republicans' has risen nine points to 77%. Independents' has dropped 10 points to 60%.

The partisan divide in views of the federal government is sharper and has widened over the past two years, spanning the start of President Donald Trump's second term. Democrats' confidence in the government's ability to ensure food safety fell from 74% in 2024 to 48% in 2025, before dropping further to 30% today. Republicans' has risen steadily, from 50% to 62% to 70%. In 2024, Democrats were 24 points more confident than Republicans; now they are 40 points less confident.

By contrast, all three party groups have grown more likely since 2024 to say they have avoided certain brands or types of food in the past year, resulting in large majorities of Republicans (63%), independents (73%) and Democrats (81%) all reporting this today. Similarly, all three groups have become more likely to say they’ve worried that something they ate may have been contaminated.

Throwing out food is the exception: Republicans are less likely to report doing so in 2026 than they were in 2024 (34% vs. 39%, respectively), while Democrats and independents have grown more likely.

Bottom Line

Americans' confidence in grocery food safety and in the federal government's ability to ensure the safety of the food supply are both at new lows, after the largest recorded cyclospora outbreak in U.S. history sickened over 12,000 people across 21 states. More Americans now than at any point in Gallup's trends say they have avoided certain foods, thrown food out or worried about contamination because of recalls.

This is not the first time that food scares have coincided with lower confidence in the government to ensure food safety. From 1999 to 2006, between 76% and 85% of Americans were confident in the federal government. In 2007 and 2008, spanning several E. coli and salmonella outbreaks, confidence in food safety was 71%. It has not reached 70% in any reading since. Gallup did not ask the question from 2009 to 2018, so it is unclear whether confidence ever recovered in between, even if only temporarily. By 2019, it was at 68%, and it has since fallen to 47%.

Today, confidence in the government to ensure food safety — like most measures evaluating the government — is sharply polarized by party, with 70% of Republicans (the incumbent party) and 30% of Democrats (the opposition party) confident in the federal government. Measures of consumer behaviors are more similar by party and, the trends suggest, more responsive to the threat of illness than by considerations of which party is in power. Majorities of Republicans (63%), independents (73%) and Democrats (81%) say they have avoided certain foods because of recalls, with all groups showing increases since 2024. The share who worry that something they ate was contaminated, at 42%, is up from about a quarter of U.S. adults in 2007, 2008 and 2024, suggesting Americans, including those from all party subgroups, feel more personally at risk.

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