engleski

Serving consumer demands Consumer needs for affordable food of good quality and diversity

What do consumers really want today? What are their concerns? Food has a powerful impact on human physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being and this is reflected on in many new nutritional approaches. Consumers expect a steady increase in quality, safety and diversity of food. Consumers' perception of food quality is a dynamic variable. It might focus on products, processes, process management or on management issues such as fairness in trade, working conditions, environmental consciousness, or the origin of products. Despite the fact that food has never been safer, it seems that consumers are considerably uncertain, anxious and increasingly critical about the safety of their food. Both growing demand for safer, healthier and higher food quality, and at consumers' concerns about global warming and environment protection necessitate a more intensive and closer collaboration of food scientists and technologists, engineers, and others, in order to use information from the fields of biophysics, informatics, nanotechnology, nutritiogenomics, and medicine, to address all social and economic challenges. Understanding consumer behaviour as a major factor in the competitiveness of food industry and the impact of food on health, and well-being, the focus should be placed on consumers' perception and attitudes towards food, understanding of societal trends, and identification of food choice determinants and consumer access to food. Most of the food available to the consumers are both processed and packed. To ensure a high level of protection of human health and consumers' interests in relation to food, the basic task should be to provide an integrated approach « from fork to farm» covering all sectors of the food chain, including feed production, primary production, food processing, transport, and retail sale. The final goals to be required referred to new flexible enterprise relationships that will connect further food products and process development with consumers' needs, based on research results obtained in respective fundamental disciplines.

consumer; food quality and safety; nutrition; well-being

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