Adherence
Consumer confidence in food safety, healthfulness, sustainability, and authenticity is primarily determined by beliefs about the openness, competence, and care of food chain actors (manufacturers, farmers, retailers, authorities), with openness being the strongest predictor of confidence.
For food producers and policymakers, building consumer confidence requires prioritizing transparency (openness) and demonstrating competence. Since consumers cannot verify health or sustainability claims themselves, they rely on trust in the actors. Therefore, clear, honest communication and proven capability are more critical than the claims themselves.
Analysis provided support for the model and showed that consumer confidence is largely determined by consumer beliefs about the trustworthiness of food chain actors. In particular the beliefs about openness, and especially about the openness of food manufacturers, are strongly related to consumer confidence.
Why this rating
Large-scale cross-national survey (n=5870) with validated scales and structural equation modeling.
Source
Consumer trust in the food value chain and its impact on consumer confidence: A model for assessing consumer trust and evidence from a 5-country study in Europe
Anna L. Macready et al. · Food Policy · 2020
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