Excellent

Never did I think I shall see something on the Food Standards Agency website that I would cheer about. But here it is:

Respondents were asked how worried they were about certain perceived food risks such as pesticides, food poisoning, and hormones in meat. British respondents were less worried about all of these perceived risks than their European counterparts but were most concerned about the welfare of farmed animals and the quality and freshness of food.

UK respondents were more worried about the economic crises negatively affecting their lives than concerned that the food they personally eat could possibly damage their health. Only 29% of UK respondents thought that food could possibly damage their health as opposed to 48% in the rest of the EU. UK consumers were also less likely to permanently change their eating habits after hearing that a type of food was unsafe following media stories (only 7% in the UK compared to 11% in Europe).

Of course that will not stop the media from running more scare stories but, at least, ever fewer people pay attention. By the way, the Food Standards Agency is not being abolished. I thought you might like to be reminded of that.