The food sector is presently challenging the dual security and sustainability themes of climate change and biodiversity damage, which entail innovative digital infrastructures and systems, different production and supply chain approaches. Similar requirements arise among consumers concerning the expectancies to adopt healthy and sustainable behavioral models and a more critical consumption. In recent decades, eating behavior has witnessed a progressive transformation. On the one hand, there is an orientation towards a healthier diet and body care, with a growing awareness and consumption of zero km, organic or sustainable food products and, on the other, there is an orientation towards an increase in the average caloric intake and preference for unhealthy or comfort food products (cf. Piper, Mileti and Prete, 2022). Furthermore, food choices are often influenced more by the psychological interpretation of products’ characteristics than by the physical properties of the products themselves. The perception of the risk associated with the food choice is an individual psychological interpretation capable of influencing the consumers’ attitudes and behavior with respect to the purchase of food products. There is often a considerable divergence between the objective and the subjective / psychological risk assessment. Therefore, the risk perception of food safety, trust, and the correct interpretation of the nutritional information provided by producers have consequences both for the well-being of consumers, for the future profitability of producers, and for the effectiveness and the overall efficiency of the food supply chain. Communication of reliable and useful information relating to food products and production processes, able for demonstrating the orientation towards sustainability and health, could be supported and validated by the use of digital technologies. Improving consumers’ trust requires a supply chain dedicated to sustainability, leveraging competitive factors such as traceability and authentication of information (Galvez et al., 2018). In the food sector a supply chain not only represents a complex system fundamental to facilitating the movement of food products in the market, but also a strategy to increase consumer willingness to buy enhancing awareness and trust about the origin and processing of the product. According to literature, however, current food traceability systems are not very effective in building trust mechanisms (Liu et al., 2021), and secure and effective agribusiness information management is urgently required to improve food traceability. Food reliability and quality problems necessitate to improve transparency, safety, durability, and integrity of the supply chain (Feng et al., 2019). This solution presents at least three perspectives to be balanced, since agri-food traceability is a pressing issue for SMEs and farmers - as new technologies are expensive and still in an immature stage (Zhao et al., 2019) - for governments - to balance global and national management of privacy and health security (Ilbiz and Durst, 2019) - and also for consumers - to guarantee transparency (Caro et al., 2018).
New technologies for the sustainable management of the food sector
de Cosmo Lucrezia Maria;
2022-01-01
Abstract
The food sector is presently challenging the dual security and sustainability themes of climate change and biodiversity damage, which entail innovative digital infrastructures and systems, different production and supply chain approaches. Similar requirements arise among consumers concerning the expectancies to adopt healthy and sustainable behavioral models and a more critical consumption. In recent decades, eating behavior has witnessed a progressive transformation. On the one hand, there is an orientation towards a healthier diet and body care, with a growing awareness and consumption of zero km, organic or sustainable food products and, on the other, there is an orientation towards an increase in the average caloric intake and preference for unhealthy or comfort food products (cf. Piper, Mileti and Prete, 2022). Furthermore, food choices are often influenced more by the psychological interpretation of products’ characteristics than by the physical properties of the products themselves. The perception of the risk associated with the food choice is an individual psychological interpretation capable of influencing the consumers’ attitudes and behavior with respect to the purchase of food products. There is often a considerable divergence between the objective and the subjective / psychological risk assessment. Therefore, the risk perception of food safety, trust, and the correct interpretation of the nutritional information provided by producers have consequences both for the well-being of consumers, for the future profitability of producers, and for the effectiveness and the overall efficiency of the food supply chain. Communication of reliable and useful information relating to food products and production processes, able for demonstrating the orientation towards sustainability and health, could be supported and validated by the use of digital technologies. Improving consumers’ trust requires a supply chain dedicated to sustainability, leveraging competitive factors such as traceability and authentication of information (Galvez et al., 2018). In the food sector a supply chain not only represents a complex system fundamental to facilitating the movement of food products in the market, but also a strategy to increase consumer willingness to buy enhancing awareness and trust about the origin and processing of the product. According to literature, however, current food traceability systems are not very effective in building trust mechanisms (Liu et al., 2021), and secure and effective agribusiness information management is urgently required to improve food traceability. Food reliability and quality problems necessitate to improve transparency, safety, durability, and integrity of the supply chain (Feng et al., 2019). This solution presents at least three perspectives to be balanced, since agri-food traceability is a pressing issue for SMEs and farmers - as new technologies are expensive and still in an immature stage (Zhao et al., 2019) - for governments - to balance global and national management of privacy and health security (Ilbiz and Durst, 2019) - and also for consumers - to guarantee transparency (Caro et al., 2018).I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
