Ketchum, New York, N.Y., offers a white paper about food technology and consumer trust. The new piece examines what transparency really means for the food industry and it recommends best practices to engage with today’s consumers. 

Food tech is pushing the boundaries of innovation to solve important problems and delight consumers once again. But how much tech is too much?

And then there’s that other “T” word that keeps coming up. Transparency. “More, more, more information! Pull away the curtains. Answer my questions – really answer them.” 

More typically means more access, more invitations, more signals and portals. The challenge is to share more information while avoiding the Transparency Trap.

The food industry, more than any other consumer sector, is built molecule by molecule on trust, and the harder it is for consumers to get and understand the information they want, the less likely they are to trust. Real transparency is answering the questions people are actually asking – not telling people what you want them to hear.

We know consumers today want a new relationship with food. Food companies that want to embrace this new relationship need to acknowledge consumer concerns and provide credible information the average person can understand.

Ketchum’s white paper “Talk Food Tech to Me: Avoiding the Transparency Trap” explores this delicate balance of providing information consumers understand via numerous access points, so they can acquire more of the information they want when they want it.

The white paper covers:

•    The evolution of food companies’ communication strategies to earn consumer trust (or lack thereof)

•    Top three insights for talking to modern day consumers about food technology

•    Recommendations for communication that address demands for transparency, reduce confusion and worry, and temper negativity toward the food and beverage space

Click here to request a copy of the full white paper.