engleski

Traceability in Croatian Meat Sector: are Consumers Aware of it?

The traceability of food and food ingredients along the food chain is an essential element in ensuring food safety. It is a tool for tracing product and processing information of food from sea/farm to table, so that relevant information can be found at a later point. Traceability has been introduced in Croatia in 2007 for all food and feed as well as related business operators. The aim of this paper was to examine Croatian consumers’ awareness and their attitude towards traceability of meat products, by means of a face-to-face survey on a sample of 120 respondents in Zagreb and surrounding. The research results show that the consumers’ awareness level with regard to food traceability was very low. Consumers familiar to any extent with traceability mostly do not know any product or company with implemented traceability system. Lack of knowledge about traceability concept resulted mainly in indifference regarding existence of this system ; respondents do not consider it as an important cue of meat products. Only a few respondents consider it as necessary and are ready to pay higher price for traced meat products. The study confirmed that the traceability as part of the food quality and safety control is under-recognized term in Croatian market. Therefore, the education of consumers about the traceability and the presentation of the advantages this system offers is an important task of meat producers, in order to maintain consumer confidence in the safety and quality of their products.

Traceability; meat products; Croatia; survey; consumers’ knowledge

nije evidentirano