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What happens when the institutions responsible for keeping our food safe are no longer trusted to tell us whether it’s safe?

We’re about to find out.

New Gallup research reveals a troubling reality. Just 65% of Americans are confident that food sold in grocery stores is safe, down from 81% in 2019. Confidence in the federal government’s ability to ensure food safety has fallen to an astonishing 47%.

Perhaps most concerning, 73% of Americans report avoiding certain foods or brands following a recall or safety advisory, up 20% in just two years.

These aren’t simply troubling statistics. They’re warning signs of a fundamental shift in the relationship between the food system and the people it serves.

Food Safety is About More Than Science

We’ve spent decades building systems to make food safer. But we’ve failed to build the relationships necessary for people to believe it.

That distinction matters enormously. The food system has traditionally operated on a straightforward assumption: Demonstrate scientific rigor, maintain regulatory oversight, communicate the facts, and public confidence will follow.

That model is increasingly obsolete. We’re living through a profound transformation in how people determine what and whom to believe. Institutional authority no longer automatically confers credibility. Scientific expertise doesn’t necessarily translate into trust. And repeating reassuring facts more loudly rarely changes deeply held beliefs.

People increasingly filter information through personal values, lived experiences, cultural identity and communities of shared belief. They aren’t simply asking, “Is this food safe?” They’re asking, “Who can I believe?”

The Trust Challenge Requires a Different Approach

The Gallup findings reveal something particularly provocative. Republicans’ confidence in federal food safety oversight is 70%. Among Democrats, it’s just 30%. Yet substantial majorities across both parties report avoiding foods because of safety warnings.

Our perceptions of institutional credibility are increasingly political. Our fears about feeding our families are not. That should challenge every food industry leader.

When confidence becomes disconnected from the actual performance of safety systems, more testing, better technology and additional regulatory assurances, while essential, won’t be sufficient to restore trust.

And here’s the uncomfortable truth: The food industry cannot communicate its way out of a problem it hasn’t fully understood.

We need to move beyond measuring what consumers know to understanding what they believe, why they believe it, and whom they trust.

We need to recognize that trust isn’t transferred through information alone. It’s earned through demonstrated shared values, credible relationships, transparency and consistent behavior.

And we must stop treating consumer skepticism as an information deficit that can be corrected with another educational campaign.

The implications extend well beyond food safety. Gene editing, food ingredients, animal welfare, environmental sustainability and emerging technologies all face the same challenge.

The organizations that thrive won’t necessarily be those with the most compelling scientific evidence. They’ll be those that understand how evidence intersects with human values and build authentic relationships before controversy erupts.

Food safety remains a scientific and operational imperative. But confidence in food safety is fundamentally a human challenge.

Until we recognize the difference, we may continue making our food safer while watching public trust decline.

And that’s a future none of us should accept.