Zebra Technologies Corporation has announced the results of its Food Safety Supply Chain Vision Study. The study highlights the views of consumers as well as food and beverage industry decision-makers worldwide from distribution and warehouses to grocery stores and restaurants around safety, traceability and transparency.

Surveyed consumers reported their top food safety concerns include restaurant kitchen and wait staff hygiene, foodborne outbreaks, illness from contaminated food, and food and beverage recalls. Consumers can be quite unforgiving if they experience a food incident as approximately six in 10 reportedly would never eat at a restaurant again if they contracted a foodborne illness or food poisoning. Slightly more than 80 percent of surveyed consumers said companies have an important role to play in implementing food safety solutions and an ethical responsibility to ensure the safe handling of their food.  Most consumers (70 percent) said it is important to know how their food and ingredients are manufactured, prepared, and handled, while 69 percent agreed knowing how their food is sourced is also important.

Given the increased focus on health and wellness, its unsurprising both consumers and industry decision-makers are showing a great level of interest in the source, quality and safety of their food. However, a disconnect exists between what consumers believe and what industry decision-makers think. Almost seven in 10 (69 percent) decision-makers say the industry is prepared to manage food traceability and transparency, but only 35 percent of consumers agree. Furthermore, only 13 percent of consumers felt the industry was extremely prepared today to manage food traceability and be transparent about how food travels through the supply chain, wheras 27 percent of decision-makers reported feeling this way.  Unfortunately, this is not just a short-term challenge as approximately half (51 percent) of surveyed food and beverage decision-makers said meeting consumer expectations will remain a challenge in five years.

"The F&B industry in Southeast Asia is already taking measures to ensure more transparency in the supply chain. However, our study found that a lot more work still needs to be done in order to increase consumer confidence and improve food traceability in this region," said Fang-How, Lim, Regional Director for Southeast Asia, Zebra Technologies. "Due to the digital world we live in today, businesses have more information available to them. Businesses should leverage this and provide consumers access to the same information, which in turn can increase consumers faith in their food sources."

One bright spot identified in the research is the role that technology can play in closing both these gaps in both the short- and long-term.  An overwhelming majority (90 percent) of decision-makers acknowledged that investments in traceability-focused solutions will provide them with a competitive advantage by enabling them to meet the expectations of consumers. When asked about the top benefits that technology-based track and trace solutions would provide, nearly six in 10 decision-makers cited risk reductions with proper handling, transportation and storage and tracking product perishability. 41 percent of industry decision-makers reported RFID tags improve food traceability within the supply chain more than any other technology, yet only 31 percent currently use them within their own organisations.

Mobile computers and tablets, mobile barcode label printers, scanners and specialty labels and tags will also be key enablers in winning consumer trust and delivering more transparent information to consumers.

Approximately 90 percent of surveyed industry decision-makers expect to use rugged handheld mobile computers with scanners, barcode scanners and mobile barcode label printers within the next five years to digitally manage and track food products and related information.

"Zebra offers a portfolio of solutions that transform the food supply chain from farm to fork," said Aik Jin, Tan, Vertical Solutions Lead, Zebra Technologies Asia Pacific. "Businesses can choose from basic track and trace solutions by pairing up of the likes of the ZQ511 and ZQ521 mobile printers with the CS60 Series companion scanner for barcode printing and scanning. Otherwise, they can opt for RFID solutions by pairing up the likes of the ZQ511 and ZQ521 RFID mobile printers that produce RFID-enabled labels with handheld RFID readers and RFID-enabled scanners. By doing so, businesses will be empowered with real-time visibility that takes their track and trace efforts to a whole new level."