Paraphrasing and Rewriting

Over the past few decades there has been a growing demand for safe and high-quality food. Rapid economic development and recent changes in the food supply chain have contributed to increased interest in the issue of quality in the food sector (Sadilek, 2019). In recent years, food safety issues have become more serious and keep threatening the public health. Unsafe food containing harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites, or chemical substances causes more than 200 diseases—ranging from diarrhea to cancers. An estimated 600 million in the world fall ill after eating contaminated food and 420,000 die every year, resulting in the loss of 33 million disability adjusted life years (DALYs). Children under 5 years of age carry 40% of the food borne disease burden, with 125,000 deaths every year. Diarrheal diseases are the most common illnesses resulting from the consumption of contaminated food, causing 550 million people to fall ill and 230,000 deaths every year (Gizaw, 2019). Furthermore, food safety related issues have had huge social impacts, including costly implications on the economy and businesses. For instance, the bovine spongiform encephalitis (BSE or mad cow disease) outbreak in the 1990s caused financial losses of US $5.6 billion globally (Kimball and Taneda 2004). In response, governments worldwide have been forced to reactively impose new legislations and regulations for the food industries. As a result, a number of integrated food safety and quality management systems have been implemented (Aiello et al. 2015; Charlebois et al. 2014; Kirezieva et al. 2013; Rong et al. 2011; Trienekens and Zuurbier 2008; Van der Meulen 2015; Chen et al. 2019; Liu et al. 2018). Traceability of food across the supply chain, from ‘farm to fork’, has been regarded as an important tool supporting compliance with legislations and regulations. This entails monitoring of food safety and quality across the chain and help restoring and increasing consumer confidence (Aung and Chang 2014; Bosona and Gebresenbet 2013; Kher et al. 2010; Martinez and Epelbaum 2011; Tang et al. 2015; Cheung and Luber 2016).(Zhang, Mankad, & Ariyawardana, 2020). It is very important to track and trace the detailed event information within the whole food supply chain including food production, processing, warehousing, transportation, and retail. Establishing an accurate and effective food safety traceability system has become a key solution to the food safety issues (Lin, Wang, Pei, & Wang, 2019).

Food traceability, defined as the possibility to trace back the history of a food product, is a very important process from the point of view of ensuring food safety for consumers all over the world. The safety of produced food can be maintained only when full traceability of raw materials, semi-finished products, and processes are ensured on all stages of the food chain(Walaszczyk & Galińska, 2020).  As recent as two decades ago, traceability systems were developed for the food industry to improve food supply chain management (FSCM), to differentiate foods with subtle quality attributes and to facilitate tracking for food safety (Golan, Krissoff, & Kuchler, 2004). Some systems intensely track food from farms to retailers, and very few focus on key points in a supply chain. Moreover, some traceability systems simply gather data for tracking foods to the time of processing or logistics trajectory, while others track superficial information, such as the location in a large geographical area (Dickinson & Bailey, 2002). The definition of traceability is very broad because food is a complex product, and traceability is an instrument used to achieve a variety of different objectives. E. H. Golan et al. (2004) suggest that firms have three important objectives in using traceability systems: enhance food safety and quality traceback; distinguish and sell products with subtle or undetectable quality attributes; and improve SCM and the entire firm which can be translated into higher net revenues for the company. The motivations to apply traceability can vary due to the various characteristics of products and their supply chain position. For many food businesses, meeting the statutory requirements is the most important reason to implement traceability. Amidst a continuing series of food controversies and outbreaks, such as bird flu, mad cow disease, foot-and-mouth disease, and COVID-19 pandemic, consumers are increasingly requesting information about the source and ingredients of their food products. The design and implementation of complete traceability from farm to fork has become an important task for the food industry to reliably supply top-quality, safe and nutritious products as well as to create consumer confidence.

Recently, more attention was paid to scientific research carried out globally on the consumers’ perception of food origin tracing. Recently such research was conducted in China (Kendall et al., 2019), Japan (Jin & Zhou, 2014), Brazil (Matzembacher, do Carmo Stangherlin, Slongo, & Cataldi, 2018),Australia(Zhang et al., 2020), Italy (Ingrassia, Bacarella, Columba, Altamore, & Chironi, 2017)and Poland(Walaszczyk & Galińska, 2020). These researchers’ conclusion which either applies to a particular country or compares the issue of consumers’ approach to food traceability in different countries (Van Rijswijk, Frewer, Menozzi, & Faioli, 2008), is that consumers want information regarding where a product comes from, what production methods were used, whether production was certified, and if information on the packaging is complete and reliable(Smith, 2012). Nevertheless, consumers in different countries have different perceptions and attitudes towards food traceability systems(Chen et al., 2018). However, there is a lack of studies focusing on consumer acceptance of food products traceability system implemented in Saudi Arabia or any Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Especially considering that in Saudi Arabia, food poisoning is becoming a very important health problem (El Sheikha, 2015). It is possible, therefore, that Saudi Consumers have become highly concerned about the safety of their food. However, this hasn’t previously been studied.