Information on food safety, consumer preference and behavior: The case of seafood in the US

- There is a conflict between consumers' perception and behavior about the COOL.
- Consumers have different safety perceptions on seafood from different countries.
- Consumers are heterogenous, some more skeptical about imported food than others.

In this paper, we study three issues related to US consumers' attitude about food safety for imported food. First, we investigate the relationship between U.S. consumers' perception and their actual behavior when purchasing seafood, and find a conflict in that many consumers think the food country of original label (COOL) is extremely important but they don't check the label when purchasing. Second, we assess factors that affect consumers' attitude toward country of origin information and safety certification labeling. We find demographic characteristics matter, in that female and less educated individuals care more about both kinds of labels than their counterparts. We also find older people tend to care more about COOL while consumers with higher consumption care more about the labels explicit on food safety. Finally, we address consumers' perception on the level of safety associated with fish and shellfish products produced in six major U.S. seafood importing countries. They trust Canada much more than Indonesia, Ecuador, Thailand, China and Viet Nam, and quality certification labels help to improve the trust on Indonesia and Ecuador but not much on the other countries.