Consumers seek food’s country of origin

CONSUMERS want all hotels, restaurants and catering outlets to adequately inform them about the country of origin of the food they are being served.

The findings of an Agri Aware survey published in Dublin yesterday revealed that 97% of consumers wanted to be better informed on the country of origin of produce.

Absence of information on food, particularly in hotels, pubs and catering outlets, leads two-thirds of consumers to assume that the country of origin is Ireland. This assumption is compounded by the fact that only 12% of consumers check that the food they buy when eating out is Irish. This is in stark contrast with consumer behaviour when purchasing food in shops as two-thirds of them check the country of origin and buy Irish when the information is available.