Not trusting big food.

Trust in big food is very low. In a free-association word game we recently played with a large cross section of consumers, no food or food product was freely associated with the word "trustworthy"! The fact that three(!) car nameplates (Toyota, Honda, and Subaru) were cited as examples of trustworthy makes the total absence of food names even sharper.

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While they weren't freely associated with "trustworthy," food advertising and companies were associated with the words "time-saving," "work-saving," and "sneaky." Prepared foods, pre-cut vegetables, and packaged salads were frequent free associations with work-saving and time-saving. Food advertising, size reductions, and "New and Improved" claims were frequent examples of practices, products, and companies associated with "sneaky."