Proceedings Volume 2010 (format .pdf) - SimpBTH

5. CONCLUSIONSThe introduction of improved food traceability systems has aimed torestore consumer confidence in food safety and quality, in part by being able toprovide consumers with more information about the origins of foods and foodingredients.Little is known about consumer attitudes and beliefs associated withtraceability, nor their preferences for information provision. Given theheterogeneity of European consumers, it is not surprising that they have differentperceptions and expectations regarding and understanding the concept of‘traceability'. Consumers may also perceive traceability differently for differentproduct types.The benefits for consumer associate with traceability are in terms of health,quality, safety and control, of which the latter was associated with trust andconfidence.Importantly, both quality and safety were shown to be related totraceability in the consumers' minds with quality implying safety. The results showthat traceability may contribute to improving consumer confidence.Traceability lets you identify:- All the stages involved in the fabrication of a product;- The origin of the ingredients and components;- The ingredient and the raw material suppliers;- The places where the products and ingredients are warehoused;- The equipment used in the production or manipulation of the products- The production, distribution and sales batch numbers.In short, traceability lets you improve the quality, the service and the globalefficiency of your company.It is clear that traceability comes at a cost, but the costs of not having it, orhaving inefficient systems in place may be severe both for governments,consumers, individual companies and the food industry as a whole.Traceability systems need to be checked to determine if they meet thefollowing objectives:• provide traceability forwards and backwards• include all raw materials, ingredients and packagingmaterials• give a response in an appropriate time• provide simple and readable traceability information to theconsumer• in some cases, provide a feedback304