T
he food consumption tendencies favour a scenario characterized by a strong demand for systematized, consumer-opinion-influenced information. The consumer should no longer be considered the final destination of traceability but its co-creator (due to his perception of the quality and the collective knowledge generated as a result of interaction).
Social Food Traceability makes use of the above mentioned tendencies as well as the potentialities offered by the Web 2.0 environment, maximizing the advantages of real time interaction between the consumers and agents that make up the professional networks and the organizations involved in any given food product. USERS MAY TRACE NOT ONLY THE PRODUCT ITSELF BUT ALSO EACH CONSUMPTION EXPERIENCE AND THE SOCIAL INTERACTION SURROUNDING IT. In addition, social food traceability allows for proactive integration of the professional roles that take part in the food chain, adding even more value to the current tendencies of product differentiation and consumption experiences.
Traditional food quality and security certification processes will continue to be a very significant input, but new tendencies require that softwares currently used in these processes should start taking into account the social dimension in real time. As for identification technologies, they will gradually migrate from barcodes to RFID technologies (and others still in the experimental stage), always bearing in mind the need to be referenced to the consumer in real time (through tech devices such as mobiles, tablets and netbooks).