Food traceability important to grocery customers

Customers are more likely to purchase food products when grocers use food traceability systems to show where and how the food was produced and shipped, according to new research from the University at Buffalo School of Management.

In the wake of major food safety issues such as mad cow disease, consumers concerned about their health and safety have demanded to know more about how their food was produced and reached their grocery store.

Published in Information & Management, the study also found that for some shoppers, just having the information available is enough to influence a purchase.

The researchers found that a key factor to increasing consumer trust in retailers is effective governmental oversight of this information.

The researchers surveyed 245 mostly female consumers in Seoul, South Korea, where beef traceability systems are installed in nearly every grocery market.

Further research should collect data from consumers in other parts of the world, with a more representative sample of the gender breakdown of grocery buyers, Kishore says. The sample was 83 percent female, while 68 percent of grocery shopping is done by women, according to the study.

Kishore collaborated on the project with Chul Woo Yoo, Ph.D., assistant professor of information technology and operations management at the Florida Atlantic University College of Business, and Srikanth Parameswaran, a Ph.D. candidate in the UB School of Management.

Source: potatogrower.com