Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47906.
Department of Agricultural Economics, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma 74078, USA.
J Food Prot. 2021 Jul 1;84(7):1150-1159. doi: 10.4315/JFP-20-383.
Recall announcements by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) are important communication tools. Nonetheless, previous studies revealed that the effects of recalls on consumer demand are small. Social media analytics can provide insights into public awareness of food safety-related incidents. This study included social listening data to analyze how the public, in social and online media spaces, responds to, interacts with, and references food safety recalls and/or initial announcements of foodborne illness outbreaks as reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Analysis results suggest that mentions quantified in the social and online media searches moved closer in step with the CDC's initial reports of foodborne illness outbreaks than did FDA and FSIS recall announcements. Issuance of recalls may not be a popular source of food risk information in the social media space compared with reactions to the CDC's initial illness reports. This relative popularity reflects people more often sharing or posting about illness risk regardless of whether a recall occurs, suggesting that recall announcements by the FDA and FSIS may not induce changes in consumers' behavior, whereas initial illness reports by the CDC may. Although recalls by the FDA and FSIS may not generate social media posts, their primary role is to take potentially unsafe food items off grocery shelves. Online media analytics provide policy makers with information to guide effective food risk communication; initial CDC reports drive immediate attention more than do FDA and FSIS recalls.
美国食品和药物管理局（FDA）和食品安全检验局（FSIS）发布的召回通告是重要的沟通工具。然而，先前的研究表明，召回对消费者需求的影响很小。社交媒体分析可以提供有关公众对食品安全相关事件的认识的见解。本研究包括社会监听数据，以分析公众在社交和在线媒体空间中如何对疾病控制和预防中心（CDC）报告的食品安全召回和/或食源性疾病暴发的初始通告做出反应、互动和引用。分析结果表明，在社交和在线媒体搜索中量化的提及与 CDC 关于食源性疾病暴发的初始报告更接近，而不是与 FDA 和 FSIS 的召回通告。与对 CDC 初始疾病报告的反应相比，召回的发布在社交媒体空间中可能不是受欢迎的食品风险信息来源。这种相对受欢迎程度反映出，人们更经常分享或发布有关疾病风险的信息，而不管是否发生召回，这表明 FDA 和 FSIS 的召回通告可能不会引起消费者行为的改变，而 CDC 的初始疾病报告可能会。尽管 FDA 和 FSIS 的召回可能不会在社交媒体上发布帖子，但它们的主要作用是将潜在不安全的食品从杂货店货架上撤下。在线媒体分析为政策制定者提供了指导有效食品风险沟通的信息；CDC 的初始报告比 FDA 和 FSIS 的召回更能引起立即关注。
