Chronic Wasting Disease - Food Safety Concern

Food Safety Concern

In recent years, the terms food safety and risk have attracted more attention, due to many reports and news coverage about food illness events around the world. Food safety concerns, especially regarding meat, have particularly increased in European countries and North America after specific food safety events. Additionally, Chen and Wohlgenant (2006) found that meat consumption responds to health information to a greater degree in current years and that it affects the demand of meat products strongly when price and other factors are left aside. The research also found that consumers` preferences are not impacted by factors such as price and incomes as much due to the forming of personal habits, but consumers would decrease consumption of particular food products when they perceived food safety problems. Further, meat safety issues in one region of the world may have an impact on other regions where the safety event did not take place.

Awareness of CWD, a disease that affects cervid (deer, elk, moose) populations, may produce similar effects on the risk assessment and consumption of venison. If this can be determined, there will be several implications for the market of game meat and for policy concerning management of CWD, and possibly other similar diseases. If consumers’ food preferences are shown to be affected by their risk assessment of CWD, this will mean that in areas with a higher prevalence of CWD, the market demand for game meat and recreational hunting would likely be reduced.

To collect data on risk attitudes and perceptions, an internet-based survey was given to a market research firm. The survey contained questions on risk attitudes and preferences in general, as well as more specific questions on CWD and venison. The respondents who answered questions in the survey indicating they were concerned about CWD showed higher levels of risk perception than those who did not. This is consistent with logic, as those who are concerned about the disease are likely to do so because they see it as a risk to the health and safety of both people and the animals themselves.