Transparency Is No Longer Optional: How Food Companies Can Restore Trust

This post was originally published on Forbes on November 30, 2015.

Guest post written by Charlie Arnot, CEO of The Center for Food Integrity, a national non-profit dedicated to building consumer trust in the food system.
 

The message about GMOs was expected to be reassuring.

Focus group research conducted by The Center for Food Integrity (CFI) invited participants to give their reaction to the statement that GMOs have been used for nearly 20 years with no reports of ill health effects. Consumers, however, were far from comforted.

“This is beyond scary to me,” one woman replied. “I feel like I’ve been deceived. The fact that we’ve been eating this stuff since 1996 …. Why weren’t they providing more information all along aboutwhat I’m eating?”

Consumers want authentic transparency

It was a light bulb moment: Consumers want authentic transparency. They want all the details – the good, the bad and the ugly – so they can decide for themselves. When GMOs were introduced, both scientific studies and regulatory bodies concluded they were safe, so not much consideration was given to providing additional details to the public. Though unintentional, this lack of transparency eroded consumer trust in GMO technology and the food system in general.

Authentic transparency, on the other hand, can transform a relationship that is tarnished by suspicion. It reduces fear of the unknown and creates a platform for building trust. CFI’s 2015 consumer trust research proves that as those in the food system increase transparency, they will also increase consumer trust.

Since transparency can be an elusive term, CFI first set out to define it. We asked consumers who they hold most responsible for demonstrating transparency when it comes to food production. Food companies? Farmers? Grocery stores? Restaurants? Far and away, consumers hold food companies most responsible. And not only for areas we might expect like labor and human rights and business ethics, but also for the impact of food on health and the environment, food safety, and even animal well-being.

If you increase transparency, you will increase trust The online survey of 2,000 people also asked precisely what consumers want and expect food producers to be transparent about – policies, practices, performance or verification. Consumers responded that transparency in a company or organization’s practices count most toward building trust. That’s because practices are a demonstration of a company’s values in action, and our research shows shared values are the foundation for building trust.

Including information on product labels, offering engagement opportunities through company websites and protecting whistleblowers all ranked as important practices in demonstrating transparency. Those practices reflect an organization’s values and become a good predictor of trust.

Food companies that believe these are not their issues do so at their own risk. The survey reflects a new reality in which consumers increasingly expect their favorite brands to assure more than quality and safety. As with consumers who were upset they weren’t given more information about GMOs years earlier, consumers today expect the supply chain to be transparent about everything from production practices to ingredients.

The importance of consumer engagement

Equally important, food companies must understand that simply reporting facts and science does not fulfill their definition of transparency. Consumers don’t simply want to know whether something “can” be done, but rather whether it “should” be done. Is it the right thing to do?

As a result, those involved in bringing food to the table must commit to communicating the ethical foundation of their work. They can no longer assume that the public knows they prioritize safety and care about health, animal well-being, and the environment, among other things. They must be willing to engage in a dialogue with consumers and to embrace and answer their questions in an honest, open manner.

CFI’s 2015 research leaves no doubt that effectively demonstrating transparency will help those in the food system increase public trust in their processes and products. Some farms and food companies have embraced this reality and pulled back the curtain. I encourage others to follow their lead. The journey may not be simple, but the reward – earning consumer trust – is priceless.

The CFI 2015 consumer trust research, “A Clear View of Transparency and How it Builds Trust,” can be downloaded at www.foodintegrity.org