Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 July 2017
Many factors influence consumers’ perceptions and purchasing decisions, with product labelling forming the primary means of communication. The extent to which labels should contain information about traceability is debated. Whilst traceability is an important tool used by food business organisations and regulators in assuring food safety, other drivers for information about traceability are less well understood. This paper reviews the issues related to drivers for traceability from a consumer perspective, and evaluates country-of-origin labelling (COOL), enabling technologies and food fraud as potentially significant drivers in consumer requirements for information. The implications for risk assessment, systems implementation and communications about traceability are also considered.
Michail Bitzios, Research Fellow; Lisa Jack, Professor in Accounting; Sally-Ann Krzyzaniak, Research Fellow and Mark Xu, Professor of Information Management, Portsmouth Business School, University of Portsmouth.
1 Prescott, J and others, “Motives for food choice: a comparison of consumers from Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia and New Zealand” (2002) 13 Food Quality and Preference 489 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
2 Eertmans, A, Baeyens, F and Van Den Bergh, O, “Food likes and their relative importance in human eating behavior: review and preliminary suggestions for health promotion” (2001) Health Education Research 443 Google Scholar.
3 Bernués, Alberto, Olaizola, Ana and Corcoran, Kate, “Extrinsic attributes of red meat as indicators of quality in Europe: an application for market segmentation” (2003) Food Quality and Preference 265 Google Scholar.
4 Krissoff, B and others, “Country-of-Origin Labeling: Theory and Observation” (USDA, 2004); Ronald W Ward, Julian Britz and Isabel de Felipe, “Competing Supplies of Olive Oil in the German Market: An Application of Multinomial Logit Models” (2003) Agribusiness 393 Google Scholar.
5 Korthals, Michiel, “Ethical Rooms for Maneuver and Their Prospects Vis-à-vis the Current Ethical Food Policies in Europe” (2008) Journal of Agricultual and Environmental Ethics 249 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
6 Non-compliance with allergen labelling, which is a key food safety issue for vulnerable consumers, accounted for 14% of recorded food incidents in the UK in 2015 (Food Standards Agency and Food Standards Scotland “The Annual Report of Food Incidents”, www.food.gov.uk/news-updates/news/2016/15190/fsa-annual-report-of-incidents-2015-published, accessed 4 November 2016).
7 Shears, Peter, “Food fraud – a current issue but an old problem” (2010) British Food Journal 198 Google Scholar.
8 Montanari, Francesco, Varallo, Cesare and Pisanello, Daniele, “Food Fraud in the EU” (2016) 7(1) European Journal of Risk Regulation 197 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
9 Debra Schug, “Preventing food fraud” Food Engineering (Troy Michigan, January 2016) 109.
10 Spink, John and Moyer, Douglas C, “Defining the Public Health Threat of Food Fraud” (2011) Journal of Food Science R157 Google ScholarPubMed.
11 Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Food Standards Agency, “Elliott Review into the Integrity and Assurance of Food Supply Networks Final Report” (National Food Crime Prevention Framework July 2014)”, www.gov.uk/government/publications/elliott-review-into-the-integrity-and-assurance-of-food-supply-networks-final-report, accessed 4 November 2016 (Elliott Report).
12 British Standards Institute, “PAS 96: 2014, Guide to Protecting and Defending Food and Drink from Deliberate Attack” (3rd Edition, BSI Standards Ltd 2014), www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/pas96-2014-food-drink-protection-guide.pdf, accessed 29 November 2016; SSAFE, “Food Fraud Vulnerability Assessment Tool” (2016), www.ssafe-food.org/our-projects, accessed 29 November 2016.
13 British Retail Consortium, “Global Standard Food Safety Issue 7” (British Retail Consortium, 2015).
14 Karlsen, Kine Mari and others, “Literature review: Does a common theoretical framework to implement food traceability exist?” (2013) 32 Food Control 409 Google Scholar; P Olsen, “Food traceability process mapping. Standard method for analyzing material flow, information flow and information loss in supply chains” (Harmonizing methods for food traceability process mapping and cost/benefit calculations related to the implementation of electronic traceability systems Workshop hosted by Nofima in association with TRACE project, Tromso Norway, February 2009).
15 Chrysochou, Polymeros, Chryssochoidis, George and Kehagia, Olga, “Traceability information carriers. The technology backgrounds and consumers’ perceptions of the technological solutions” (2009) 53 Appetite 322 Google Scholar.
16 Alfnes, Frode and Rickertsen, Kyrre, “European Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for U.S. Beef in Experimental Auction Markets” (2003) American Journal of Agricultural Economics 396 Google Scholar; Bai, Junfei, Zhang, Caiping and Jiang, Jing, “The role of certificate issuer on consumers’ willingness‐to‐pay for milk traceability in China” (2013) Agricultural Economics 537 Google Scholar; Dickinson, DL and Bailey, D, “Meat traceability: Are US consumers willing to pay for it?” (2002) Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics 348 Google Scholar; Dickinson, DL and Von Bailey, Dee, “Experimental Evidence on Willingness to Pay for Red Meat Traceability in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Japan” (2005) Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics 537 Google Scholar; Loureiro, Maria L and Umberger, Wendy J, “A choice experiment model for beef: What US consumer responses tell us about relative preferences for food safety, country-of-origin labeling and traceability” (2007) 32 Food Policy 496 Google Scholar; Roosen, Jutta, Lusk, Jayson L and Fox, John A, “Consumer Demand for and Attitudes Toward Alternative Beef Labelling Strategies in France, Germany, and the UK” (2003) Agribusiness 77 Google Scholar; Steiner, Bodo, Gao, Fei and Unterschultz, Jim, “Alberta consumers’ valuation of extrinsic and intrinsic red meat attributes: A choice experimental approach” (2010) Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d”agroeconomie 171 Google Scholar; Ubilava, David and Foster, Kenneth, “Quality certification vs. product traceability: Consumer preferences for informational attributes of pork in Georgia” (2009) 34 Food Policy 305 Google Scholar.
17 Chen, Mei-Fang, “Consumer attitudes and purchase intentions in relation to organic foods in Taiwan: Moderating effects of food-related personality traits” (2007) 18 Food Quality and Preference 1008 Google Scholar; Mennecke, Brian E and others, “A study of the factors that influence consumer attitudes toward beef products using the conjoint market analysis tool” (2007) Journal of Animal Science 2639 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Verbeke, Wim and others, “European beef consumers’ interest in a beef eating-quality guarantee: Insights from a qualitative study in four EU countries” (2010) 54 Appetite 289 Google Scholar.
18 Kehagia, Olga and others, “European Consumers’ Perceptions, Definitions and Expectations of Traceability and the Importance of Labels, and the Differences in These Perceptions by Product Type” (2007) Sociologia Ruralis 400 Google Scholar.
19 Van Rijswijk, Wendy and Frewer, Lynn J, “Consumer needs and requirements for food and ingredient traceability information” (2012) International Journal of Consumer Studies 282 Google Scholar.
20 Giraud, G and Amblard, C, “What does traceability mean for beef meat consumer?” (2003) 23 Food Science 40 Google Scholar.
21 Dickinson and Bailey, supra, note 16; Gellynck, X and Verbeke, W, “Consumer perception of traceability in the meat chain” (2001) Agrarwirtschaft 368 Google Scholar; Hobbs, Jill E and others, “Traceability in the Canadian red meat sector: do consumers care?” (2005) Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d”agroeconomie 47 Google Scholar.
22 Codex Alimentarius Commission of the FAO and WHO, 14th Proceedural Manual (2004).
23 Charlebois, Sylvain and others, “Comparison of Global Food Traceability Regulations and Requirements” (2014) Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety 1104 Google Scholar.
24 Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 Of The European Parliament and of The Council of 28 January 2002 laying down the general principles and requirements of food law, establishing the European Food
Safety Authority and laying down procedures in matters of food safety, in OJ 2002 L31/1, Art. 18.
25 Additional requirements for labelling and traceability are laid down in EU legislation for specific food categories as discussed in the following sections of this article.
26 van Rijswijk, Wendy and others, “Consumer perceptions of traceability: A cross-national comparison of the associated benefits” (2008) 19 Food Quality and Preference 452 Google Scholar.
27 McEachern, Morven G and Schröder, Monika JA, “Integrating the voice of the consumer within the value chain: a focus on value‐based labelling communications in the fresh‐meat sector” (2004) Journal of Consumer Marketing 497 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
28 Baker, Susan, New Consumer Marketing: Managing a Living Demand System (John Wiley & Sons Ltd 2003)Google Scholar.
29 Morris, Carol and Young, Craig, “‘Seed to shelf’, ‘teat to table’, ‘barley to beer’ and ‘womb to tomb’: discourses of food quality and quality assurance schemes in the UK” (2000) 16 Journal of Rural Studies 103 Google Scholar.
30 Early, R, “Farm assurance: benefit or burden” (1998) 159 Journal of Royal Agricultural Society of England 33 Google Scholar.
31 Walley, Keith, Parsons, Stephen and Bland, Maggie, “Quality assurance and the consumer” (1999) British Food Journal 148 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
32 Grunert, Klaus G, “Food quality and safety: consumer perception and demand” (2005) European Review of Agricultural Economics 369 Google Scholar; Verbeke, Wim and Viaene, Jacques, “Beliefs, attitude and behaviour towards fresh meat consumption in Belgium: empirical evidence from a consumer survey” (1999) 10 Food Quality and Preference 437 Google Scholar.
33 Hobbs and others, supra, note 21; Verbeke, Wim and Ward, Ronald W, “Consumer interest in information cues denoting quality, traceability and origin: An application of ordered probit models to beef labels” (2006), 17 Food Quality and Preference 453 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
34 European Parliament and Council Regulation, Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2011 on the provision of food information to consumers, amending Regulations (EC) No 1924/2006 and (EC) No 1925/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council, and repealing Commission Directive 87/250/EEC, Council Directive 90/496/EEC, Commission Directive 1999/10/EC, Directive 2000/13/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, Commission Directives 2002/67/EC and 2008/5/EC and Commission Regulation (EC) No 608/2004 Text with EEA relevance [2011], OJ L304/54, Art. 26, para. 2 point a); the “FIC Regulation”.
35 Commission Regulation, implenting Regulation (EU) No 1337/2013 of 13 December 2013 laying down rules for the application of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards the indication of the country of origin or place of provenance for fresh, chilled and frozen meat of swine, sheep, goats and poultry [2013] OJ L335/56.
36 For a discussion of the new legislation, and the definitions of “country of rearing” pertaining to the different animals, see Carreño, Ignacio, “New EU Rules on the Country of Origin Labelling for meat of Swine, Sheep, Goats and Poultry” (2014) 5(2) European Journal of Risk Regulation 213 Google Scholar.
37 Adapted from the Food Standards Agency Scotland, Consumer guide to country of origin information on food labels (2008).
38 Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, supra, note 34.
39 Verbeke, W, Ward, RW and Avermaete, T, “Evaluation of publicity measures relating to the EU beef labelling system in Belgium” (2002) 27 Food Policy 339 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
40 European Parliament and Council, supra, note 34.
41 European Commission, Report from the Commisson to the European Parliament and the Council regarding the mandatory indication of the country of origin or place of provenance for meat used as an ingredient, 755 (2013).
42 European Commission, Report from the Commisson to the European Parliament and the Council regarding the mandatory indication of the country of origin or place of provenance for unprocessed foods, single ingredient products and ingredients that represent more than 50% of a food, 204 (2015).
43 European Parliament and Council Regulation, Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 November 2012 on quality schemes for agricultural products and foodstuffs [2012] OJ L 343/55, Art. 3.
44 G Giraud and R Halawany, “Consumers perception of food traceability in Europe.” (98th EAAE Seminar “Marketing Dynamics within the Global Trading System: New Perspectives”, Chania, Crete, July 2006).
45 Dimara, Efthalia and Skuras, Dimitris, “Consumer evaluations of product certification, geographic association and traceability in Greece” (2003) European Journal of Marketing 690 Google Scholar.
46 Chrysochou, Chryssochoidis and Kehagia, supra, note 15.
47 Juels, Ari, “RFID Privacy” in Katherine J Strandburg and Daniela Stan Raicu (eds), Privacy and Technologies of Identity: A Cross-Disciplinary Conversation (Springer US, 2006)Google Scholar; Roberts, CM, “Radio frequency identification (RFID)” (2006) 25 Computers & Security 18 Google Scholar.
48 Chrysochou, Chryssochoidis and Kehagia, supra, note 15.
49 Chrysochou, Chryssochoidis and Kehagia, supra, note 15.
50 Van Rijswijk and Frewer, supra, note 19.
51 Van Rijswijk and Frewer, supra, note 19.
52 Van Rijswijk, Wendy and Frewer, Lynne J, “Consumer perceptions of food quality and safety and their relation to traceability” (2008) British Food Journal 1034 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
53 Ogden, Rob, “Fisheries forensics: the use of DNA tools for improving compliance, traceability and enforcement in the fishing industry” (2008) Fish & Fisheries 462 Google Scholar.
54 Galimberti, Andrea and others, “DNA barcoding as a new tool for food traceability” (2013) 50(1) Food Research International 55 Google Scholar.
55 Schulze, C and others, “Evaluation of greylevel-features for printing technique classification in high-throughput document management systems” in SN Srihari and K Franke (eds), Computational Forensics 2nd International Workshop, IWCF 2008, Washington DC 2008 (Springer, 2008)Google Scholar.
56 G Gupta and others, “Document Frauds: Identification and Linking Fake Document to Scanners and Printers” (2007) Proceedings of the International Conference on Computing: Theory and Applications.
57 Van Rijswijk and others, supra, note 26.
58 Loureiro and Umberger, supra, note 16.
59 Ubilava and Foster, supra, note 16.
60 Bai, Zhang and Jiang, supra, note 16.
61 Steiner, Gao and Unterschultz, supra, note 16.
62 Dickinson and Bailey (2002), supra, note 16.
63 Dickinson and Bailey (2005), supra, note 16.
64 Roosen, Lusk and Fox, supra, note 16.
65 EC Report, supra, note 42.
66 EC Report, supra, note 41.
67 Gracia, Azucena and Zeballos, Gabriela, “Attitudes of Retailers and Consumers toward the EU Traceability and Labeling System for Beef” (2005) 36(3) Journal of Food Distribution Research 45 Google Scholar.
68 Verbeke, Wim and others, “Consumer perception, facts and possibilities to improve acceptability of health and sensory characteristics of pork” (1999) 53 Meat Science 77 Google Scholar.
69 Hobbs, Jill E, “A transaction cost analysis of quality, traceability and animal welfare issues in UK beef retailing” (1996) British Food Journal 16 Google Scholar.
70 Hobbs, Jill E, “Transaction costs and slaughter cattle procurement: Processors’ selection of supply channels” (1996) Agribusiness 509 Google Scholar.
71 Hobbs and others, supra, note 21.
72 British Retail Consortium, supra, note 13.
73 SSAFE, supra, note 12; BSI Guide, supra, note 12.
74 Costa Leal, Miguel and others, “Seafood traceability: current needs, available tools, and biotechnological challenges for origin certification” (2015) 33(6) Trends in Biotechnology 331 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
75 Richard Evershed and Nicola Temple, “A Slippery Deal” in Sorting The Beef From The Bull (Bloomsbury, 2016).
76 Mary Nicolson, “Exclusive: Meat plants probe over Scottish beef” The Courier (Dundee, 12 November 2016), www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/scotland/312704/exclusive-meat-plants-probe-scottish-beef, accessed 29 November 2016.
77 EC Report, supra, note 41.