Animals foraging in the wild face a trade-off between staying safe (i.e. avoiding predation or starvation) and the quality of the food. We therefore hypothesize that animals will modify their food selection (choosiness) both under competition and predation risk, but that the direction and the amount of change in choosiness will depend on the level of risk they face. To test this hypothesis, the foraging behaviour of the carabid beetle, Harpalus affinis, was examined under 4 different experimental conditions: predation risk, intra- and interspecific competition and a control. Our results show that when foraging under the risk of predation or competition animals reduce their choosiness. We show that the effect of predation risk on choosiness is two times stronger than the effect of intra- and interspecific food competition. Thus, H. affinis individuals are able to finely adjust their choosiness in response to the level of risk they face.