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Disentangling individual phases in the hunted vs. farmed meat supply chain : exploring hunters’ perceptions in Italy

  • Marescotti, Maria Elena Department of Veterinary Science for Health, Animal Production and Food Safety, University of Milano, Italy
  • Demartini, Eugenio Department of Veterinary Science for Health, Animal Production and Food Safety, University of Milano, Italy
  • Gibbert, Michael Istituto di Marketing e Comunicazione Aziendale (IMCA), Facoltà di comunicazione, cultura e società, Università della Svizzera italiana, Svizzera
  • Viganò, Roberto AlpVet, Studio Associato AlpVet, Busto Arsizio, Italy
  • Gaviglio, Anna Department of Veterinary Science for Health, Animal Production and Food Safety, University of Milano, Italy
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    16.01.2021
Published in:
  • Foods. - 2021, vol. 10, no. 1, p. 15 p
Hunters
Hunting activity
Wild boar meat
Farmed meat
Wild game meat
Food supply chain management
Food perception
Survey
Risk-assessement
English The growing body of literature concerning the hunted wild game meat (HWGM) supply chain is mainly focused on the final consumer, while little is known about upstream production processes. Even though the hunter plays a central role here, it is not well understood how hunters themselves perceive their role in the various phases of the production process. The present study explores Italian hunters’ perception of the HWGM supply chain and compares it to their perception towards the conventional farmed meat supply chain. We distinguish several phases of this production process and find that the final phase related to on-site game dressing is considered problematic, perhaps because hunters perceive themselves as less skilled than professional butchers. The results, in fact, show that hunters prefer hunted products over farmed meat, but that they consider hunted wild boar meat less safe compared to farmed pork. Findings from this study provide a rare glimpse from the inside of the supply chain and reveals the needs for a broad risk assessment analysis on the Italian game meat supply chain. Considering the development of the Italian emerging market of the HWGM, our results also highlight the relevance of training activities on hunters in order to increase the safety and quality of the final product.
Language
  • English
Classification
Production and preservation of solid foodstuffs
License
CC BY
Open access status
gold
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://n2t.net/ark:/12658/srd1319284
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