DescriptionThis research evaluated the effects of peanut butter recall event in 2007 on the U.S peanut butter market and consumers’ brand preferences. With Nielsen Homescan data from July 2006 till March 2008 covering all the purchasing trips by U.S. households, we apply discrete choice model to detect and measure the impacts of the food recall event happening in U.S. peanut butter market initiated in February 2007. To set the stage for estimation, we also examine the effects separately by three periods: pre-, during- and post-recall periods. The objectives of this study are twofold: (a) investigate whether the peanut butter recall event has great impact on customer preferences and purchasing declines for some brands or in the scale of whole market; (b) with the rich information of demographic characteristics in our data, we want to detect any association between changes of purchasing behavior and demographic variables. The findings suggest that due to the ¬¬recall event, customers changed their purchasing behavior and brand preference among national, store and especially the recalled brands. Purchasing of recalled brand has declined due to food safety alert during the event, yet it recovered to a lower level to pre-event after the recall period. It was also observed that positive spill-over effects existed for non-recalled brands. National brands benefits more than store brands. After the event, store brands suffer from some loss in market share compared with national brands. Results of my study suggest food safety issue has drawn great attention from customers backwards to manufactures along the supply chain. It is very important to inform customers about potential hazards and safety issue in food products. It is also important to monitoring food producing and processing procedures from the manufacture side with a well-developed hygiene monitoring system. Asymmetric spill-over effect exists between non-recalled national and store brands, thus different marketing strategies are necessary for strong and weak brands to maintain and regain market share. Additionally, recalled brands could regain customer confidence. It is quite useful to identify various customer groups by their demographic characteristics, then to apply corresponding marketing strategies to restore consumers’ confidence towards recalled brands. In all, it is highly recommended to prevent food safety hazards from happening before they come out of the plants and to keep information clear to customer once recall happens.