Sales Loss Determination in Food Contamination Incidents: An Application to Milk Bans in Hawaii

This article presents a procedure for estimating sales loss following a food contamination incident with application to the case of heptachlor contamination of fresh fluid milk in Oahu, Hawaii in 1982. A major finding is that media coverage following the incident had a significant impact on milk purchases and that negative coverage had a larger effect than positive coverage. This conclusion implies that public statements by producers or government to assure the public of safe food supplies may be ineffective in restoring consumer confidence following the discovery of a food safety problem. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, August, 1988.food contamination, food safety policy, milk demand, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,