The New Food Inspector: You

FreshFarm has outlined exacting standards for market vendors. Only local producers are allowed; even bakers must use a certain amount of local ingredients to participate. Market staffers also visit farms to make sure, for instance, that cage-free chickens are freely roaming in outdoor pens.

"Taste is one part of it," says Erin Dillon, a 29-year-old education policy analyst who shops at the Dupont market. "But a big part of it is trust. If it's there, I know where it's coming from. The people selling it are the people who grew it. You figure they're not going to look you in the eye and give you a bad product."

Traditional retailers are working to earn customer trust. Whole Foods, of course, has made a business of being a trusted proxy. It has developed its own, higher standards for the humane treatment of animals and for "natural" products -- a label that 86 percent of consumers say falls short of expectations, according to a survey by Consumer Reports. Current USDA standards prohibit only artificial colorings and additives in foods labeled "natural"; high-fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated oil still can be used.

"We as an industry need to step up and do what the government can't reasonably do on their own, given their resource and people limitations," says Jill Hollingsworth, vice president for food safety programs at the Food Marketing Institute. "One way to do that is to work directly with the suppliers to raise the bar and set some guidelines beyond the regulatory standards."

At the forefront of that effort, but certainly not alone, is Costco. Known for its low prices, the warehouse retailer is slowly earning a reputation for food safety. For example, unlike many supermarkets, Costco processes all ground beef sold in its stores at its own plant in Tracy, Calif. Before any raw meat enters the plant, the supplier must show that it has been tested for E. coli and other pathogens. In addition, Costco does its own checks. In 2007, it performed 34,365 tests for E. coli at its plant. The USDA performed 12,290 nationwide. Since Costco put its system in place in 1997, it has not recalled any ground beef.

"The USDA establishes a minimum requirement for safety," says Carol Tucker-Foreman, a distinguished fellow at the Consumer Federation of America's Food Policy Institute. "These days you don't want to purchase the minimum. So one answer is to only buy from a retailer you know and respect."

Perhaps the ultimate way consumers are finding to vet their food is the Internet. It has, of course, broadened choice, allowing people to buy Vermont cheeses, Alaskan salmon and Virginia hams directly from producers. But as important are Web sites such as Ethicurean, Grist, More Deliberately Every Day and the D.C.-based The Slow Cook (motto: "An urban insurgent's guide to food for life"). All are designed to help shoppers make choices they can feel comfortable about.

Ethicurean, a site that focuses on sustainable, organic, local and "ethical" food, is a classic example. Founded in 2006 by Berkeley resident Bonnie Powell as a fun way to trade information with her friends, it now has 40,000 unique visitors and 500,000 page views per month. The site is a mix of personal essays and news designed to help people who want to make good decisions about what food to eat and where to find it.

One of the more popular posts is Powell's early report on Judy's Family Farm eggs. Powell researched the business, whose egg packages evoke an idyllic country farm. In fact, the brand, along with another called Uncle Eddie's, belongs to Petaluma Farms, a large producer in California. That knowledge alone changed Powell's buying habits and those of some of her readers.

Such advocacy is having an impact. When the GfK Roper survey asked consumers who they thought had their best interests in mind when it comes to food choices, advocates and activist groups led the list of responses, at 64 percent. Retail grocers were second, at 62 percent, and food manufacturers were third, at 53 percent. The U.S. government ranked fourth at 47 percent, ahead of fast-food companies at 26 percent.

In the end, shoppers are learning that it's up to them to balance concerns of food safety, sustainability, cost and convenience, and to make the necessary trade-offs.

For Robert Spier, a 50-year-old Washington resident, that means skipping the farmers markets that don't fit his schedule for the convenience of Whole Foods and supplementing his purchases with mail-order sustainable seafood, fair-trade teas and chocolates.

"It's very hard to make all these choices," he says, "but I'm grateful that I now have the option to do so."