The Trust Issue: The aftermath of the horse meat scandal

This January marked the one year anniversary of the horsemeat scandal that made national news. In the months after this, public outrage meant that sales of frozen meat products plummeted as well as consumer confidence. An Ipsos Mori poll, conducted in partnership with the Grocer magazine published earlier this year, revealed that 31% of British adults have changed the way they choose or buy food, with 7% buying more meat from high-street butchers.

Consumer confidence and traceability of the meat were key findings, as 53% mentioned a ‘betrayal of trust’ as the most frequent concern. In addition to this, 51% believe that the ‘regulators did not monitor the industry carefully’ and were more concerned with cutting corners to boost profits. With dishonesty and betrayal leading the way as key factors in the ‘break-up’ have the public forgiven the industry or looked to other alternatives?

Reaping the benefits: traceability and trust

In the wake of the scandal, customers embarked on a mission to trace their meat and one organisation that has seen its sales soar from this are organic butchers. Gary Chadwick, master butcher at organic meat and rare breed specialist at Chadwick’s Quality Family Butcher’s, has already seen a 20% to 30% increase in sales on all meat since last year.

Chadwick says: "One mouthful of anything that we sell is far superior to what else can be brought on the high street." It seems it is not only superior results that keep his regular clientele coming back – Chadwick believes the other factor is confidence. "People, they trust us immediately, they know us and our customers really do trust us … what they want is meat they can trust."

As the Ipsos Mori survey showed, more consumers are paying attention to labels to find out where their food comes from, but as Stephen Yap, head of Ipsos MarketQuest, stated: "It is clear that public confidence will take a long while yet to recover." So has the horsemeat scandal led to consumers shunning supermarkets in favour of organic produce?

Contributing factors: the organic appeal

Although there has been an increased interest in organic food since last year, Catherine Fookes campaign manager, at the Organic Trade Board believes that other key factors also come into play. "We’ve seen the figures up to December 2013 show that the organic market in total has grown by 1.1% … but I don’t think the rise is actually solely connected to [the horsemeat scandal]," she says.

While the scandal may have shocked the public, eating habits and regulation guidelines have, for the most part, stayed the same. "If you think about [it], it’s not like everyone has stopped buying conventional meat, sales are still going on," Fookes continues. "I think people’s confidence has been shaken and it has probably made some new people want to try organic products. I think consumers probably do feel more sceptical." Uncertainty about the source of the meat, combined with environmental concerns and more mindful eating appear to be the main reasons for the slight uplift in the organic aisles. The horsemeat scandal appears to have acted as the catalyst for people to question where their food originates from.

"What organic can give is consumers confidence in terms of what they are choosing. It doesn’t contain pesticide residue, has got really high animal welfare standards, and is better for the environment" states Fookes. Chadwick also believes that traceability and understanding of the supply chain is critical. "It’s very simple when the chain is simple…you haven’t got about 20 or 30 different companies involved so it’s very, very simple to trace it back to the farm."

Confidence is key: food reassurance

In the year that has passed, chief executive of the Organic Farmers & Growers company Roger Kerr believes that what has really attracted people to organic is the reassurance. "Organic is the only food assurance scheme which has legal status and the force of law behind it. You can’t claim to be organic if you are not. In the context of food scandals this is clearly reassuring for shoppers."

However, even with slow regulation changes and sales of frozen meat continuing to sell at a steady pace, consumers may have forgiven the food industry. Kerr says: "It is not a bad thing for everyone to have a wake-up call about where their food comes from. The reality, though, is that people mostly forgive and forget in time, particularly if they can see an honest, robust and effective reaction from those involved."

"No-one should be let off the hook where they are in any way to blame and there are areas in which the food industry as a whole can do better, but longer term it would surprise us if there were lasting consequences from this."

Even if all has been forgiven, has the horsemeat debate only come to light recently? Chadwick doesn’t believe so. "I have an experience of when I was a young lad; a butcher that was lower end of the market was buying horse meat then to put in sausages. So this has been a problem that has gone on for 30 or 40 years. It was just a minor problem at that time and it became big when people decided what the profits were," he says.

Stretching the theory: forgiving the industry

The consumer choice of accepting horsemeat and forgiving the industry appears to be a statement, much like the option of purchasing organic. Although organic has risen in popularity off the back of the horsemeat scandal, it seems the demand for cheap meat is still prevalent because of the economy.

For those that haven’t forgiven and forgotten the incident and are looking for alternative ways to ensure food integrity, it looks as if organic produce will continue its steady uproar. Fookes says: "Intel have brought out a report showing that the market is set to grow and I think as long as we carry on explaining to people what organic is and reminding them why it’s different to what they are getting for their money, then yes, sales will increase."

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