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02.11.2009

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For more Hartman Group articles on FOOD SAFETY, click here...

08.08.2007“Food Safety in Question...and Transparency Becomes a Star”

09.20.2006 “Rethinking Food Safety”

07.28.2005 “The Paradox of Fresh”

05.03.2006 “Transparency: What's Really Inside the Package...and the Company”

01.25.2006 “Truth in Advertising”

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Quality Lost…for Peanuts

For decades, we've documented a cultural transition where consumers, even in recessionary times, move forward in large numbers away from what they see as industrial food experiences (e.g., those experiences characterized by “factory” foods broken into artificial components and reconstructed into “products”). As we've shown, our food culture is evolving inexorably toward reimagined foods viewed to be wholesome, fresh, unadulterated and with simpler ingredient profiles. (continues below)

VIDEO SPECIAL: Food safety from a consumer perspective, with The Hartman Group's President and COO, Laurie Demeritt.

Click the “play” button above to watch the video
Run time: 3 minutes 5 seconds

Many of the beliefs that drive consumers toward the perceived halo of freshness and health that they believe surrounds higher quality foods and beverages are frequently the same beliefs that consumers will attribute to the company producing the products. In essence, now commonly pervasive terms like transparency and authenticity really do have a role to play with brands competing in the premium product space — typically because consumers want to believe that there is a story behind “premium” or “sustainable” products that includes real farmers hoeing weeds in fields, cows in pastures, chickens in dappled, sunlit farm yards, and small, well-run mills grinding grains (or peanuts). Safe standards of production — whether or not such fantasies are real — go hand in hand with the halo of freshness and quality many consumers apply to products they see as higher quality.

Enter, stage left, The Peanut Corporation of America, which based on several news reports, had a leaky roof, years of salmonella violations and, amazingly an unknown facility in Texas which was never authorized or inspected by food safety inspectors. Sadly, it seems that the great American industrial food production system, which seeks inputs from a huge array of sources and delivers its outputs to just as broad an array of channels, really fell apart in this particular case.

Of specific interest (and consternation to consumers) is not just reports of foodservice peanut-based salmonella or inexpensive store brands failing them, but the fact that now brands positioned as premium, “natural” or gourmet products appear to be sourcing from the same place as “ordinary products.”

This is strange given what we see happening within the culture of food, which is:

A deepening interest in product origins, “real” stories of production and a genuine fascination with the company behind a brand.
A scrutiny of ingredients at individual levels: “Where do the parts that make up the whole come from?”
A distrust of foods seen to come from industrial settings, and a yearning for foods with cues of hand production, or at least some sign of craft involved with production.
An increasing tendency toward celebration of food and eating culture on everyday — as opposed to uniquely special — occasions.
A gradual shift such that the communities, families and people behind food are increasingly as important as food itself when it comes to healthy, high-quality eating experiences

Forward thinking retailers, manufacturers and foodservice providers should be aware that consumers are practicing a more mindful eating style and seeking engaging, higher quality experiences. One of the absolute baselines they apply to the search for higher quality experiences is an expectation that ingredients are safe and originate from reputable sources. Even in the case of the standard offerings of CPG companies, consumers increasingly prefer to spend the time or money necessary to ensure a higher quality food experience rather than accept standard or substandard offerings.

In the context of today's economy, this means that they are making complex household decisions where value is being redefined as quality, not merely price. The saying goes that hindsight is always twenty-twenty: In the case of product sourcing, food quality and food safety, the best brands of today already know that consumers prefer companies that look ahead, instead of making customers pay for basic errors, such as not understanding where ingredients come from. While it's true that consumers often develop a sort of “amnesia” when it comes to product-specific food scares, and often revisit the category shortly after a brief absence, the impact of lingering doubt placed on what were once assumed to be “premium” brands can last indefinitely.

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Did you know?

76% of consumers believe that government inspectors (e.g., FDA) are responsible for safeguarding America’s food supply chain. 64% say food and beverage manufacturers are responsible

8 in 10 consumers are looking for greater clarity that ingredients have been inspected by the FDA

72% of consumers want greater transparency about operations from food suppliers and regulators

Source: The Hartman Group Food Safety Survey, 2007