Reported by Ann Bagel Storck for meatingplace.com, used with permission

Scared by a flurry of recent food safety problems with meat and produce, 46 percent of Americans said they were worried they might get sick from eating contaminated food and have avoided foods they normally would have purchased because of safety warnings, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll.

Twenty-nine percent have thrown out food earlier than usual, and 14 percent have returned food to the store.

Women, who do most food shopping, proved to be more concerned than men, according to the poll. While 39 percent of men said they were “very confident” the food they buy is safe, only 23 percent of women said they felt that way.

The telephone poll of 1,000 adults was conducted July 10-14 and has a sampling error margin of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points for the overall sample.