Abstract:

Food terrorism is a term that is well characterized in the literature but among consmers it is not well known as the research showed. Attention to food terrorism apeared after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in 2001. Reccommendations and regulations due to food terrorism were published inter alia by WHO or British Retail Consortium to show the way of food defence. In this paper the consumers opinion on food terrorism are shown. As it appeared not many consumers had ever heard about food terrorism. About two thirds of the respondents did not come across the term "food terrorism". It was shown that the more consumers are involved in purchase decisions the more often they admitted to hear the term food terrorism. Next respondents were asked about their opinion about food terrorism. Approximately 22.2% of survey participants believed that food could be a tool of terrorism and feared such a possibility. On the other hand, almost half of the respondents believed that food could potentially be used as a tool of terrorism, but did not treat it as a real threat. About 13.2% of respondents claimed that food cannot be used as a tool of terrorism, and 15.9% of respondents had no opinion on this topic.