Beyond the 8 people killed, hundreds sickened and thousands of peanut products recalled, the salmonella peanut debacle has claimed another victim: consumer confidence in the safety of the U.S. food supply. Using data from the University of Minnesota’s Food Industry Center, the graph above shows the plunge in the percentage of survey respondents who said food is safer than it was a year ago. Those optimists now make up 22.5 percent of respondents, the lowest rating since the survey began in May 2008. A similar drop followed the jalapeno pepper-related salmonella outbreak last summer, but consumer confidence recovered in following months to between 40 and 45 percent - it has never crossed 50 percent, however. The results come from a weekly online survey of about 175 consumers, the university reports. The University of Minnesota is conducting thetracking project with the Louisiana State University AgCenter and it’s paid for by the National Center for Food Protection and Defense, an initiative of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

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