What do consumers think of food safety practices? Those perceptions affect our image—and our sales.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 48 million people get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 die from foodborne diseases each year in the United States. While some foodborne illnesses can take days to show symptoms, it’s common for those who get sick to blame the last place where they ate. And the last place many Americans had a meal or grabbed a snack was a convenience store.

Americans are far more likely to trust the food they consume that is prepared at home than on the road. They are also confident about their meals at sit-down restaurants and grocery stores. We see this confidence wane at all other places that sell food quickly to on-the-go customers.

The good news is that when consumers were asked how confident they are that food is prepared safely at a convenience store, only 8% said that they were “not at all confident” the food was safely prepared. The bad news is that only 14% were “very confident.”

Survey results also suggest there are hurdles regarding the breadth and definition of convenience store food.

Foodservice in a convenience store is broad. Prepared food, which is the bulk of the foodservice category (about 70% of the category), includes menu options like pizza, roller grill, chicken, soups and salads, which are often customizable by customers.

Commissary, the second largest foodservice subcategory (about 10% of the category), includes ready-to-eat meals; sandwiches and wraps; thaw, heat and eat meals; and sides and salads that are prepared and packaged offsite and delivered to stores. Rounding out the rest of the foodservice category are hot, cold and frozen dispensed beverages.

Consumers also are more likely to think that prepared foods carry more food safety risks than packaged items.

Time of day could also be a factor, which could add to perception that c-stores only sell fresh foods at certain times of day. Compared to fast-food restaurants, grocery stores and sit-down restaurants, c-stores may not be top of mind as a meal destination beyond breakfast and lunch.

NACS State of the Industry data suggests that prepared food purchases are highest during early morning (6:00 a.m-9:00 a.m.) and lunch (11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.). NACS data found that peak dinner hours (5:00 p.m-8:00 p.m.) attracted less than 9% of prepared food purchases, suggesting that convenience retailers have a huge opportunity to grow evening food offers.

However, this could also be a challenge. As consumers continue to embrace eating on the go, they are more likely to blame that food in the event of a foodborne illness, even if the real culprit was food made at home. Overall, only 1 in 20 consumers are not confident that the food they make at home is safely prepared.

In reality, food safety concerns certainly exist with home-cooked meals. In a 2022 study to assess the impact of washing poultry on kitchen contamination, researchers at North Carolina State University found that more than a quarter of study participants contaminated salad with raw poultry. The study highlights the importance of handwashing and cleaning and sanitizing to reduce the risk of foodborne illness when cooking at home.

A 2018 U.S. Department of Agriculture study found that consumers failed to properly wash their hands while preparing meals and as a result cross-contaminated items like spice containers. The results of the meal preparation study also examined consumers’ use of food thermometers when cooking ground turkey patties and found that only 34% used a food thermometer to check if the meat was cooked properly.

As the results below show, consumers rightly consider meat and fish to be risky if not properly prepared.

While all of these foods carry a food safety risk, only 7% of Americans recognized that flour carries a risk. According to the CDC, flour has not been treated to kill E. coli or Salmonella, which can contaminate grain while it’s still in the field. The milling process does not kill either pathogen, but cooking food made with flour does.

Only 30% of respondents selected leafy greens, which is surprising given recent foodborne outbreaks attributed to contaminated romaine lettuce. From 2014–2021, a total of 78 foodborne disease outbreaks linked to leafy greens (mainly romaine) were reported to the CDC.

As the quality of c-store food options continues to evolve and grow to meet consumer demand, a hyper focus on food safety also has to grow.

A foodborne illness outbreak, whether from a single c-store or a larger chain, would perpetuate those negative perceptions of c-store food that continue to linger today. But more importantly, food safely is about protecting public health. As food safety experts within our industry stress over and over again, effective food safety practices should not be seen as a competitive advantage. Instead, it’s about sharing effective tools and insights to protect your brand and, most importantly, your customers.