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Exactly 49% of Czech consumers do not pay attention to information provided on the packaging of food products by their producers. One third of them say that they are not interested in this information. This was confirmed by an opinion poll conducted for the Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority (CAFIA) by Focus, Marketing & Social Research by the end of last year.

The survey focused not only on awareness of consumers, but also on their attitude to food safety, their buying behaviour and the way they handle food. 69% of people questioned said that Czech food is safe and quality, while only 54% of consumers think this about foreign food. According to the survey, small bakeries, butcheries and shops with over-the-counter transactions are the safest to buy food, snack bars with fast food, market halls and hypermarkets came off the worst.

42% of consumers have, according to their own opinion, enough information on food safety, while a full third believe that they have not. On the other hand, the survey revealed that consumers themselves do not show much interest in such information. For example, only one tenth of respondents tried to obtain information on the conditions of sale of food. Moreover, 32% of respondents admitted that they do not lack information on food safety.

The Inspection Authority was particularly interested whether consumers can defend themselves when buying food. To the question whether they know where to turn when they encounter problems concerning food safety, 60% of respondents answered that they do not know. However, almost one-half of people questioned believe that protection of Czech consumers against unsafe and poor quality food is good in the Czech Republic. Only 2% consider it to be very poor.

As to the questions concerning safe handling of food at home, majority of respondents answered correctly. It is obvious that although not everybody actively seeks information, consumers usually have a good general knowledge. Yet more than half of respondents do not always strictly observe use-by dates and apparently keep expired food in the refrigerator. Surprisingly, 18% admitted that they do not sometimes wash fresh vegetables and fruit before eating them. Nearly one tenth of consumers admitted leaving the food they bought in the car for a longer period of time and a similar number of respondents confessed that they refreeze thawed food. The fact that 43% of consumers cut off mouldy or rotten parts of fruit or vegetables and eat the rest, although it is dangerous for health, was very surprising.

The survey confirmed a well-known fact that 70 % of consumers nowadays prefer buying food in hyper and supermarkets or discount stores and only a quarter shops in smaller stores. The respondents cited wide range of goods, long opening hours and daily fresh bakery products, fruit and vegetables as the main reasons for shopping in commercial chains. As to smaller shops, consumers appreciate mainly neighbourhood, friendly approach of the staff and shopping without queuing.

The Food Inspection Authority will use these results in the future, mainly when providing information to the public.

Results and selected charts from this survey can be found at www.szpi.gov.cz ( Czech version only).