Canadians still think well of their food system, but fewer say it’s heading the right way, 10th annual trust survey finds

Most Canadians still have a good opinion of the system that grows, processes and sells their food, but their confidence in where it is going is slipping. Fifty-seven per cent have a positive impression of Canada’s food system, unchanged from last year, while 40 per cent believe it is moving in the right direction, down five percentage points, according to research the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity released Tuesday in Toronto at its 2026 Public Trust Summit. The share who are unsure about the system’s direction rose to 38 per cent.

“Canadians haven’t lost confidence in the food system today, but they’re becoming more uncertain about what comes next,” said Lisa Bishop-Spencer, executive director of the not-for-profit charity, which has tracked public trust in food and farming for 10 years. “Trust is still there, but it’s operating in an environment shaped by affordability pressures, a more difficult information landscape, and rapid change.”

Cost is still the dominant pressure at the checkout. Forty-nine per cent of Canadians rate the cost of food as a major concern, the same as in 2025, putting it ahead of inflation, access to health care, the availability of healthy food and the state of the Canadian economy.

Worry about what people read and hear about food is growing. Concern about food misinformation rose to 43 per cent from 40 per cent in 2025, and respondents were slightly more likely to say they find it hard to tell whether food-related information is true or false, The Grower reported. Farmers remain the most trusted players in the food system, and trust in them rose five percentage points from last year. “Providing more information isn’t enough on its own,” said Ashley Bruner, the centre’s director of research and stakeholder engagement. “The challenge is making credible information easier for Canadians to recognize, understand, and verify, and ensuring the people and organizations providing it have earned their trust.”

Artificial intelligence is becoming another test. Daily use of AI tools to look up food information edged up to 12 per cent from 10 per cent, a change the centre called directional, while comfort with AI fell significantly in every area the survey measured. The centre said that suggests adoption of new technologies may be outpacing public comfort with how they are being used.

For farmers and the wider agriculture industry, the results suggest public trust remains strong, Farms.com wrote in its coverage, but holding on to it may require new approaches as consumers navigate a fast-changing information environment, including explaining the factors that drive food prices through the supply chain.

The findings echo another recent snapshot of how Canadians shop. Since Jan. 1, most prepackaged foods that meet or exceed thresholds for sodium, sugars or saturated fat must carry Health Canada’s standardized “high in” front-of-package symbol. In a survey of 1,000 adult grocery shoppers through the Angus Reid Forum, released Sept. 29 by Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab with support from ingredient supplier Blendtek Ingredients, 94.2 per cent said they were aware of the symbols, 51.3 per cent said they had decided not to buy a product because of one and 50.5 per cent had switched to another product in the same category. Snack foods were the most affected category. Yet 58 per cent said they were unwilling to pay more for a comparable product without a warning. “Consumers are clearly paying attention, but taste and affordability still matter enormously,” said Sylvain Charlebois, the lab’s senior director.

The trust research was conducted online by Ipsos Public Affairs from Aug. 18 to 31 among a representative group of 2,853 Canadian adults, with quotas and weighting to reflect census data. The centre reports a credibility interval of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. Summary reports are free on the centre’s research page, while full reports are available to members.

Sources: Canadian Centre for Food Integrity news release (Oct. 6, 2026); The Grower; Farms.com; Canadian Centre for Food Integrity research page; Agri-Food Analytics Lab, Dalhousie University, with Blendtek Ingredients (Sept. 29, 2026).