So Britons don’t really trust the government on food safety, is it the same in Australia?

In a poll done by NatCen Social Research in Britain, only 35 percent of people trusted the government at least a lot to ensure food is safe. This means that nearly two thirds of Britons do not really trust the government when it comes to food safety.

Interestingly it is not the actual food inspectors that are not trusted but the government itself, as nearly 70 percent of people said that they trusted food inspectors to ensure food safety. Farmers are also trusted at 60 percent.

Britons  feel pretty confident about local product quality with 58 percent of the 4,328 British adults between July 4 and November 2 last year believing that the food is made to high standard. They do not feel the same way about imported foods, with only 23 percent trusting their quality.

The poll also found that people do care about the farmers, with 58 percent wanting them to be paid a fair price for their produce.

NatCen research director Caireen Roberts said: “Healthiness of food is clearly an important issue when buying food, more so than considerations around the origin and cost. While confidence in the quality of food produced in Britain was just over 50%, it was higher than levels of confidence in imported food and we also saw low levels of trust in the government, supermarkets and food manufacturers.This may be because these organisations are viewed as being motivated by profit either directly or indirectly or it may be the result of previous food scares.”