The role of food chain traceability in food risk mitigation: expert and consumer outlook

The European Union has enforced mandatory traceability for food business operators for effective monitoring and management of risks associated with food and feed chains. The implementation of such a system needs to take account of stakeholder priorities and expectations. Expert stakeholders (such as food risk managers) and lay public may have different opinions about, and expectations from, food and ingredient traceability. The present article provides an overview of expert and lay perspectives on traceability implementation in the European context. The results of the stakeholder study indicate that both expert and lay stakeholders consider food and ingredient traceability as potentially improving food safety. Experts mainly underline the need for refinement in present traceability legislation, consumer require more information about the potential advantages of the system