Minnens Fien, Lucas Luijckx Niels, Verbeke Wim
Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.
TNO, Utrechtseweg 48, 3704 Zeist, The Netherlands.
Foods. 2019 Jun 25;8(6):225. doi: 10.3390/foods8060225.
One of the biggest challenges facing the food industry is assuring food integrity. Dealing with complex food integrity issues requires a multi-dimensional approach. Preventive actions and early reactive responses are key for the food supply chain. Information sharing could facilitate the detection and prevention of food integrity issues. This study investigates attitudes towards a food integrity information sharing system (FI-ISS) among stakeholders in the European food supply chain. Insights into stakeholders' interest in participating and their conditions for joining an FI-ISS are assessed. The stakeholder consultation consisted of three rounds. During the first round, a total of 143 food industry stakeholders-covering all major food sectors susceptible to food integrity issues-participated in an online quantitative survey between November 2017 and February 2018. The second round, an online qualitative feedback survey in which the findings were presented, received feedback from 61 stakeholders from the food industry, food safety authorities and the science community. Finally, 37 stakeholders discussed the results in further detail during an interactive workshop in May 2018. Three distinct groups of industry stakeholders were identified based on reported frequency of occurrence and likelihood of detecting food integrity issues. Food industry stakeholders strongly support the concept of an FI-ISS, with an attitude score of 4.49 (standard deviation (S.D.) = 0.57) on a 5-point scale, and their willingness to participate is accordingly high (81%). Consensus exists regarding the advantages an FI-ISS can yield towards detection and prevention. A stakeholder's perception of the advantages was identified as a predictor of their intention to join an FI-ISS, while their perception of the disadvantages and the perceived risk of food integrity issues were not. Medium-sized companies perceive the current detection of food integrity issues as less likely compared to smaller and large companies. Interestingly, medium-sized companies also have lower intentions to join an FI-ISS. Four key success factors for an FI-ISS are defined, more specifically with regards to (1) the actors to be involved in a system, (2) the information to be shared, (3) the third party to manage the FI-ISS and (4) the role of food safety authorities. Reactions diverged concerning the required level of transparency, the type of data that stakeholders might be willing to share in an FI-ISS and the role authorities can have within an FI-ISS.
食品行业面临的最大挑战之一是确保食品完整性。应对复杂的食品完整性问题需要采取多维度方法。预防措施和早期反应是食品供应链的关键。信息共享有助于检测和预防食品完整性问题。本研究调查了欧洲食品供应链利益相关者对食品完整性信息共享系统（FI-ISS）的态度。评估了利益相关者参与的兴趣及其加入FI-ISS的条件。利益相关者咨询包括三轮。在第一轮中，2017年11月至2018年2月期间，共有143名食品行业利益相关者——涵盖所有易受食品完整性问题影响的主要食品部门——参与了在线定量调查。第二轮是在线定性反馈调查，在该调查中展示了调查结果，收到了来自食品行业、食品安全当局和科学界的61名利益相关者的反馈。最后，37名利益相关者在2018年5月的一次互动研讨会上进一步详细讨论了结果。根据报告的食品完整性问题发生频率和检测可能性，确定了三类不同的行业利益相关者。食品行业利益相关者强烈支持FI-ISS的概念，在5分制量表上的态度得分为4.49（标准差（S.D.）=0.57），因此他们参与的意愿很高（81%）。对于FI-ISS在检测和预防方面所能带来的优势存在共识。利益相关者对优势的认知被确定为其加入FI-ISS意愿的一个预测因素，而他们对劣势的认知以及对食品完整性问题的感知风险则不是。与小公司和大公司相比，中型公司认为当前检测到食品完整性问题的可能性较小。有趣的是，中型公司加入FI-ISS的意愿也较低。定义了FI-ISS的四个关键成功因素，更具体地涉及（1）系统中涉及的行为者，（2）要共享的信息，（3）管理FI-ISS的第三方，以及（4）食品安全当局的作用。对于所需的透明度水平、利益相关者在FI-ISS中可能愿意共享的数据类型以及当局在FI-ISS中可以发挥的作用，各方反应不一。
