Dar seafood ppp standard

1.1 Consumer attitudes to seafood safety
Public health professionals advocate seafood in the diet as a means to address obesity and as a good source of omega-3 fatty acids⁵⁴. A study of consumer attitudes in Sydney and Perth found that the perceptions that fish is healthier than meat and that it adds variety to the diet were major factors influencing consumption. However uncertainty about safety and contamination, a lack of knowledge about seafood and high prices were major barriers to increased consumption⁵⁵.
The role of food safety systems is to minimise risks to public health, and in the process, to maintain consumer confidence in the food supply. Consumers have responded to outbreaks of food-borne illness in the past by reducing their demand for seafood. For example, following contamination of NSW bivalve molluscs in 1997, NSW consumers immediately reduced their demand for bivalve molluscs by 85 percent. They also immediately reduced their overall demand for seafood products by 30 percent, indicating that consumers readily generalise a specific seafood risk to all categories of seafood products⁵⁶. Consumers also tend to respond by expressing a lack of confidence in the capacity of industry and government to ensure food safety, a situation that may also impact on trade.
Other data, however, indicate that, despite a relatively short-term negative response to outbreaks of food-borne illness⁵⁷, there is solid demand for seafood over the medium term. For example, the share of seafood expenditure in household’s food budgets was similar in 1993-94 to the share in 1998-99⁵⁸, indicating solid demand for seafood over the medium term. This demonstrates consumers perceive the benefits of seafood consumption to be greater than any risks associated with its consumption. Nevertheless, short-term negative responses can last up to a year and have a significant impact on some seafood producers or sectors, highlighting the importance of consumer confidence as an important issue for industry and government.