Consumers are increasingly concerned about what they eat and what the means are until food reaches their tables.
The growing concern for a more sustainable environment and the demand for food quality led two North American companies to develop attempts at solutions.
Consumers increasingly want greater transparency in food quality, especially concerning fresh perishable foods.
We have all been looking for the best vegetables, fruits, etc. for a long time. It is often asked how these foods were grown (including questions such as: which pesticides and herbicides were used), when they were harvested, etc. Thus, accompanying the food chain from the producer to our dish is an asset.
In this Dirt to Dinner article, Richard Owen has a futuristic view on this subject. The food chain has more and more parties involved, and it is necessary to join efforts so that transparency in food quality is omnipresent.
According to the Food Marketing Institute (FMI), online food purchases in the March/April 2020 period skyrocketed to 27% of all food spending this year, compared with 14% in February. This increase in online sales should attract the consumer to look for a more transparent system.
While on a commercial surface we can censorial choose what we are going to buy; online a larger background is necessary, namely, how it was cultivated, when it was harvested, size, if it is biological etc. And it is mainly in this field that there are gaps in transparency. Transparency helps in consumer choice!
In this sense, very promising technologies are being developed. Safetraces, a Californian company has developed a DNA barcode that can be added to fruits and vegetables using a spray or wax. According to the company, it is odourless, tasteless and does not pose a risk to food security.
In addition, the company HarvestMark in partnership with iFood Decision Sciences intends to create a platform that allows consumers to view each stage of the supply chain, as well as to give feedback and reward “transparent” brands. This software will allow faster and more reliable consumer feedback to farmers, which allows them to improve.
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