Digging Deeper...
/In addition to being conscious of their own health, consumers are also concerned about the health of their community and planet. New technologies have been developed to allow consumers to trace ingredients — to know, literally, where their food came from — identifying the location of origin and farmer profile, as well as shipping, preparation, and storage methods. This information holds manufacturers accountable for their environmental footprint and treatment of workers and animals. This helps brands to demonstrate their value to the community and consumer, helping to differentiate them from the competition. “The biggest trend driving change in the food and beverage industry right now is Transparency. “Consumers want to know and understand what ingredients are going into their products, which is why we are seeing so many innovative products with shorter ingredient lists that you can pronounce,” says Samantha Abram, Co-Founder of Emmy Organics. Consumers are seeking simplicity in addition to better quality foods. “Until now, Abram adds, “it was rare to flip to the back of a product on shelf and read it before putting it in your cart. Consumers are reading the back of packages now more than ever.”
By: Dennis McLaughlin, McLaughlin Writers LLC – Sources: 2023 Ag Innovation Forum, Agricultural Business Council of Kansas City; Transparency, Food and The Global Supply Chain, New Food Magazine 2019, Stanley Chia, Pegasystems; Nielsen Global Corporate Sustainability Report, 2018; Charlie Arnot, CEO, Center for Food Integrity; Allison Flinn, DVM, Executive Director, Value Chain and Consumer Affairs at Merck Animal Health; Samantha Abram, Co-Founder of Emmy Organics.
Transparency: It’s What’s For Dinner
Over the last decade, consumers have become increasingly health conscious and concerned about what they eat. Early on, the movement was restricted to foodies, organic aficionados and food safety activists leary of additives, artificial ingredients and genetically modified crops. This apprehension on the part of shoppers, noted The Nielsen Company in a 2018 study, prompted food companies to promote their products as “free of artificial ingredients and additives.” Such label claims as “All Natural,” said Nielson, grew 7.8% in 2017 over 2016. Boasts of “Nothing Artificial” were 3.6% higher in that same time span.
Transparency has gone mainstream, wrote Stanley Chia in a 2019 article for New Food magazine. He is Director of Emerging Enterprise Sales for software company Pegasystems. “Initially just the pet project of green consumers,” he said at the time, “transparency is now gaining traction worldwide with many shoppers caring about ingredient sourcing, labelling and what impact the manufacture and distribution of products has on the environment and society.”
Charlie Arnot, CEO of The Center for Food Integrity and a speaker at many KC Agricultural Business Council events, has maintained that transparency is no longer optional; it’s a basic consumer expectation. “The changes people expected to happen over five years happened in about five months.”
Moderating a panel discussion on transparency in food processing, packaging and tracing earlier this month at the Ag Business Council’s 7th Annual Ag Innovation Forum, J.J. Jones, Principal of Cultivated Conversations, summed up consumer attitudes on the subject: “People just want to be comfortable.”
New Merck Study
Jones’ timely comment came on the heels of a major study confirming the importance of transparency and sustainability in the minds of consumers, especially when it comes to purchasing animal protein. On January 31, 2023, Merck Animal Health published the results of its first-ever consumer transparency research. The study focused on consumers’ growing interest in transparency and its importance in their purchasing decisions and brand trust. It explored consumer desire for transparency in animal protein, such as meat, fish, eggs and dairy, and their perceptions of industry transparency when it comes to animal welfare and sustainability. It also looked at the interplay of transparency and traceability and consumers’ willingness to pay for transparency label claims.
“The survey results tell us consumers want more information than ever in order to make informed decisions about the food they put on their dinner tables,” said Allison Flinn, DVM, Executive Director, Value Chain and Consumer Affairs at Merck Animal Health. "We work to be an industry leader in improving animal health through our biopharmaceutical and technology portfolio solutions, and we also have the technology that can provide greater transparency and allow consumers to make informed decisions. In fact, our DNA TRACEBACK® technology, which uses nature’s bar code – DNA – with data analytics, provides an evidence-based animal protein traceability solution to accurately trace meat and seafood that is verifiable from farm-to-table to help build trust in food labels.”
The DNA TRACEBACK platform is an advanced meat traceability solution that verifies the exact origin of meat products for the food producer, food retailer and consumer. Each animal in the program is DNA sampled so that in every stage of the production chain – from the farm gate, the processing plant and right through to the restaurant plate – the exact origin of meat or seafood is verified.
According to Merck, a sample of each animal’s DNA code is captured at slaughter and assigned a unique barcode number. This DNA number is then linked to the animal and can be traced through the supply chain all the way to individual cuts of meat served in restaurants.
Study Methodology
As for the numbers, the research found that 66% of consumers say transparency in animal protein is extremely or very important. The study focused on consumers’ growing interest in transparency and its importance in purchasing decisions and brand trust. Two-thirds of the survey respondents say transparency in animal proteins is extremely or very important and the reasons are personal, with health and nutrition topping that list.
What’s more, 86% of consumers who said transparency is important also ranked traceability as extremely or very important, and 40% of those consumers want to know where the livestock comes from. More than 50% of the respondents said they were willing to pay a 5% premium for transparency on the label and want more information than ever about how their food is grown and raised to make informed decisions at the grocery store.
For the study researchers defined transparency as knowing how food was grown, raised and made. Traceability was defined as knowing where foods come from, or more specifically, being able to follow the movement of food products and ingredients through the supply chain. The study surveyed more than 1,000 consumers who represent the U.S. shopper.
Highlights from the study include:
66% of consumers reported transparency in animal proteins (meat, fish, eggs and dairy) is extremely or very important and the reasons are personal – health and nutrition top the list;
86% of consumers who reported transparency is important also rank traceability as extremely/very important and 40% of those consumers also want to know where the livestock comes from;
Over 50% of consumers surveyed reported they were willing to pay a 5% premium for transparency on the label and want more information than ever about how their food is grown and raised to make informed decisions at the grocery store;
High-transparency seekers, or those who consider transparency most important to their purchasing decisions and are willing to pay for it on the label, are typically millennial, non-Caucasian, educated males who live in urban areas with their children – and they do the grocery shopping;
Environmental sustainability and animal welfare are important animal protein purchase considerations with 55% surveyed reporting environmental sustainability as very/extremely important and 66% reporting animal care/treatment as extremely important/very important. “Sustainability, nutrition, food safety, and animal welfare are all topics consumers want to know more about, and we know greater transparency builds trust,” said Dr. Flinn. “Consumers also want to know the brands they buy from are transparent.