The milk supply chain: Get to know it and make it known

The Granarolo Group (the largest agro-industrial operator in the country supported by Italian capital) has announced the results of the first survey regarding information needs of Italian consumers, by the Permanent Observatory on the Italian milk supply chain “Healthy Eating, Italian Supply Chain”*.

Under the observation Italian agrifood production, dairy product labels and Italian raw materials.
With the objective of going further into the matter in the next issue of ItaliaImballaggio, here we anticipate in a very condensed form the results of the survey, which involved a total of 1,021 Italian citizens, men and women aged between 18 and 70 years.

Made in Italy. 50% of respondents do not know the meaning of “Made in Italy” of a food product (not necessarily produced with Italian raw materials). About 30% believe in fact that it is made with Italian raw materials, but the 96% consider it important that a product derives from Italian raw materials and is willing to spend up to 73% more for it.

Food labels. 95% of respondents believe they are important but only 18% read them to the end. People above all look at the expiration date (63%). A significant percentage (48%) consider the labels unclear, too technical, printed using lettering that is too small and often do not understand what is written.

Powdered milk. 84% of respondents were unfavorable to the use of powdered milk for cheese production, even though only a lower percentage (64%) its use is forbidden in Italy.

Controlled agrifood chain and legality. For consumers the main factors that express the concept of legality of the supply chain are: Indication of the origin of raw materials (95%), compliance with food safety standards (94%), the place of processing (91%), adherence to standards of respect and protection for workers employed in the industry (48%) and the presence of the registered trademark (42%).

* The “Mangiar Sano, Filiera Italiana” Observatory was established in 2014 by ADOC, Cittadinanzattiva, Federconsumatori e Movimento Consumatori together with the Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry and Granarolo, with the goal of providing consumers with information of general interest on the Italian production chain and knowledge of the nutritional aspects related to food safety.