Consumers Trust Meat Industry as Much as Used Car Salesmen

A 2015 consumer trust survey conducted in all EU countries, Iceland, and Norway revealed widespread distrust of the meat industry. The large-scale poll asked 500 people in each participating country to rank industries based on criteria such as trust, choice, expectations, and complaints. Amongst the 13 industries included in the survey—such as books, non-alcoholic drinks, and dry goods—the meat sector came in 12th, ranking only one position higher than the used car industry. Survey results were composited to determine each industry’s market performance index, and the meat industry fell below the 82.4 average at 80.6, with the used car category trailing behind at 75.6. Factors such as the horse meat scandal of 2013 and routinely mislabeled animal products—as evidenced by rampant fraud recently found in the global fish industry—have contributed to the meat sector classification as one of the lowest trusted industries since 2010.