IMPROVING FOOD QUALITY FOR THE ORGANIC POULTRY MEAT SECTOR: A QUALITY FUNCTION DEPLOYMENT APPROACH

Summary

The paper presents results from an Italian study on the development of the food quality for poultry meat into the organic sector, using the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) technique. Results show that among the visual characteristics of poultry meat consumers assign greater importance to attributes strictly related to the animal welfare issue. Price and product appearance (colour and fat presence) come as second. To meet these needs, producers can effectively operate along the supply chain by acting on: housing type, genotype lines and stocking density (animal concentration/mq). Information about these issues (labelling) should also be provided to the consumers.