Results of an Organic Market and Stakeholder Survey about methods in processing of organic food

Summary

The report provides a contribution to the development of the Code of Practice for food processors from a market actors and other stakeholders perspective about the acceptance of relevant methods in organic food processing.
For that purpose an Organic Market and Stakeholder Survey (OMSS) was conducted as part of the "ProOrg" project in spring 2021. It covered, among others, the importance of quality aspects in the selection of processing technologies, the acceptance of quality changes in organic food processing, and the acceptance and rejection of potential technologies for organic processing.
A total of 310 stakeholders took part in the online OMSS.
A central question was whether a Code of Practice (CoP) is welcomed among organic stakeholders including representatives of the organic food processing industry. According to the results of the survey two thirds of all respondents would welcome a CoP for organic food processors.
The food processing method can affect 1) the taste and 2) the nutritional content of the food. It also can have an impact on 3) the environment (e.g. water and energy consumption, CO2 emissions, etc.). Hence, the study authors wanted to gain insights how important the three aspects are in the decision process whether a certain method can be considered as suitable for organic food processing or not.
The results indicate that the relative importance of all quality aspects is high but varies depending on the food categories. In tendency, maintaining a high nutritional value is most important, while the influence on the sensory quality seems to be slightly less important for the choice of a processing technology. The relative importance varies between the tested food categories (food in general, staple foods, convenience foods, luxury foods), with the queried quality aspects being more important for staple foods for daily consumption than for luxury and convenience foods.