Abstract:
Many scholars and experts on traceability really think that today the value this system brings
to a company is changing. It should not be considered anymore just as tool to be used for
pure regulatory requirements. Nevertheless, as Sparling et al. report “Most food-industry
managers view traceability as a regulatory-compliance issue targeted at improving food
safety” (2006, p. 160). In this study I interviewed six managers working in the Italian dairy
industry to discover if the Italian dairy firms considered perceive traceability just as a duty
to be accomplished because required from the law or as an effective tool also for marketing
purpose as scholars think. In addition, I analyzed if the firms perceive that the benefits of
traceability exceed the costs of implementing it. It results from the study that the
interviewees think it is very difficult to quantify benefits and costs related to a traceability
system and that they still perceive that the most important reasons to implement a
traceability system are related to regulatory-compliance and health issues. However, the
reasons behind those results seems to diverge according to the dimension of the companies.
