Examining traceability with primary customer questionnaires

Abstract

Ensuring the traceability is obligatory in the agro-food industry so more enterprises and teams of researchers developed methods. These systems can be grouped into 3 main groups: there are paper-based, electronic and mixed versions. It is stated that the consumers prefers traceability but they think its part of the guaranteed (expected) quality, because most of them regard it rather a feature of food-safety than a feature of food-quality. That is why they will not pay more for the products that are more expensive owing to the electronic traceability system. According to the survey the mixed version fits best to the consumers’ demands. The mixed version of traceability systems besides paper-based registering uploads the collected data into a central database so they can be digitally searched and categorized. Furthermore the consumers are needed to be informed of the traceability’s advantages because twenty percent of them are not able to identify the traced foods.