People want to know where food comes from and how it was produced. They want the story behind the product. Customers are asking more questions about product origins and attributes. Consumers are looking for value (quality and price), but they are also shopping for products that represent their values.

“Sustainability” is the next wave. The problem with reading labels is misleading and unsubstantiated marketing claims. “Natural” claims are increasingly meaningless, and do not address the conditions under which food was produced. “Organic” does not fully address the range of concerns associated with agriculture. “Local” is only part of the story.

The key to satisfying customer expectations and accessing new market opportunity is increasing traceability (preserving product identity from farm to fork), transparency (verifying the conditions under which foods are produced and handled) and accountability (holding the business to an independent performance standard).

Certification validates and substantiates product claims. As awareness of food issues grows, consumers will become increasingly skeptical about product claims. Social and environmental responsibility is a new dimension of quality. Third-party certification such as Food Alliance offers maximum credibility.

Food Alliance is a nonprofit organization that certifies farms, ranches, and food processors and distributors for sustainable agricultural and facility management practices. By choosing Food Alliance Certified products, consumers and commercial food buyers support safe and fair working conditions, humane treatment of animals, and good environmental stewardship.

Over the last 11 years, improved practices in Food Alliance Certified agricultural operations and food handling facilities have led to better conditions for thousands of workers, more humane treatment of hundreds of thousands of animals, reduced use of toxic and hazardous materials, and healthier soils, cleaner water, and enhanced wildlife habitat on millions of acres of range and farmland.

For more info visit: http://www.foodalliance.org

For a great example of a "food company" connecting consumers to the origin of their food, check out: http://www.findthefarmer.com/

Tom is right to point out that the survey didn't disentangle people's concerns over health from those over safety, but the reality is that both of those are woven in with many other concerns, including:

the environmental impact of food production techniques (like how fertilizers run-off is creating dead-zones)

resource/species depletion

animal welfare and cruelty

sustaining rural farming communities

social justice (think the Immokalee workers in FL, or child labor in cocoa)

food-miles/CO2

quality

preserving/renewing food cultures (eg Slow Food )

and simple curiousity about the back story of what we put in our mouth and feed to our family and guests.

At any given time one of these issues might become more or less prominent, but from our accumulated experience we're confident that generally all of these concerns/interests will only continue to increase, both within individuals and across society more generally.