2026 International Food Information Council Food & Health Survey: A Focus On Food & Ingredient Safety

For more than two decades, the IFIC Food & Health Survey has tracked how Americans think about food, nutrition, health, and the role these factors play in food decisions.

The International Food Information Council (IFIC) commissioned an online survey among U.S. and Canadian consumers to measure knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about food, nutrition, health, and the role these factors play in food decisions. Three thousand five U.S. adults (n=3005) ages 18 to 80 years completed the online survey from March 22-April 8, 2026.

The first, the 2026 IFIC Food & Health Survey: A Focus on Food & Ingredient Safety, was fielded March 22–April 8, 2026 — notably, before a summer of headlines around foodborne illness, including a high-profile Cyclospora outbreak in lettuce, alongside Salmonella and E. coli recalls. The second, an IFIC Spotlight Survey on Americans’ awareness of and response to the ongoing Cyclospora outbreak, was fielded August 12–17, 2026. Together, these new studies offer a before and after view of a public that was already paying closer attention. 

“What stands out this year isn’t alarm: it’s engagement,” said Wendy Reinhardt Kapsak, MS, RDN, IFIC President and CEO. “More Americans are forming a point of view on food safety against a busy backdrop of recalls, potential regulatory actions, and confounding headlines. That’s the real shift worth paying attention to.” 

Confidence Rebounds — But The Story Underneath Is More Complicated 

After hitting an IFIC Food & Health Survey-low of 55% in 2025, this year 62% of Americans say they are confident in the safety of the U.S. food supply — a seven-point jump that ties the largest year-over-year gain in the 15-year trend. The share who are very confident drove most of it, climbing from 11% to 16%. 

That’s the headline number. But the longer view adds nuance: the 5 and 15-year trends show confidence is still six points below its 2022 level and 16 points below the 2012 record high of 78%. And the trend line has been anything but steady in recent years, swinging from 70% in 2023 down to 55% in 2025 before landing back at 62%. 

“It would be easy to read a rebound in confidence as ‘people have stopped worrying,’ but that’s not what we’re seeing,” said Reinhardt Kapsak. “People are more engaged with food, including news about food safety, not less — and more willing to form an opinion. What’s striking in 2026 is that Americans are weighing what they hear against what they experience, and both are shaping how they define a safe, healthy food. Confidence and concern aren’t opposites here. They’re rising together.” 

Americans’ Top Food Safety Concerns 

Asked to rank their top three food safety issues in 2026, Americans most often named: 

• Pesticides — 48% 

• Carcinogens — 46% 

• Foodborne illness — 43% 

• Heavy metals — 40% 

• Food additives and ingredients — 37% 

Foodborne illness stands apart on one measure: it has ranked first or tied for first among Americans’ single most important food safety issue in each of the past three years. And notably, 95% of respondents ranked at least one ingredient- or chemical-related concern in their top three from nine options — a reminder of how central ingredient questions have become. 

One thousand six Canadian adults (n=1006) ages 18 to 80 years completed the online survey from March 27-April 8, 2026. Results from each country’s sample were weighted separately to reflect their national population demographics, using the 2025 Current Population Survey for the U.S. sample and the 2021 Statistics Canada Census for the Canadian sample. Specifically, results were weighted by age, education, gender, race/ethnicity, and region.

These insights highlight food and ingredient safety. Throughout the rest of the year, IFIC is implementing a rolling release, reporting salient insights from portions the 2026 IFIC Food & Health Survey.

Read more about the survey here.