ABSTRACT The article argues that the crisis of legitimacy of environmental policy is closely connected with its declining effectiveness and efficiency in front of the growing saliency of uncertainty. Trust and responsibility are relevant analytical dimensions for addressing this issue. Contrary to the former, the latter has been poorly explored in its applications to policy issues. To this purpose a typology is presented, which helps to understand the evolutionary logic and current weakness of environmental policy. Theoretical reflection is supported by a study on public views of food safety. Trust and responsibility confirm their relevance. Opinions about the different actors involved in the food chain and the regulatory and control systems are contradictory, while attempts to provide trust with solid grounds are confronted with attitudes of mistrust, suspicion and resignation. Overall, citizens’ concerns remain largely unanswered. This indicates that institutional and corporate unresponsiveness represents a major issue, negatively affecting the social legitimation of food policy.