The impact of food quality and safety on consumer perception and attitude to food choices in Romania. Opportunities under Green Deal

Consumer attitude and perception on food quality in general have caused and continue to cause a great deal of controversy, sparking the interest of food researchers and not only in studying the impact of food quality and safety on consumer behaviour. Assessing the level of knowledge on quality nutrition among consumers is of great importance on the metabolic benefits with a primary impact in ensuring and improving health and quality of life. According to EU Green Deal objectives, especially those highlighted in the Farm to Fork action, food quality is a key driver for enhancing organic farming as an important long term goal of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Taking into consideration those realities our paper aims to assess the impact of food quality and safety on consumers’ choices in Romania, while underlying progress on the main food-related indicators in Romania. The research methodology is based on a quantitative analysis using the questionnaires on quality of life as a whole for achieving relevant answers for the aspects regarding the perception on food quality in stages. Our main conclusion is showing that in Romania the whole system of achieving food security and safety of food consumption with a certain level of quality must start with food production and distribution system. Thus, it is necessary that this system responds to all the specific demands of food security without omitting the current impact of climate change on agriculture and the adaptation of agriculture to procedures meant to reduce the future impact on the environment. Also the indicators related to food quality in Romania are showing that the higher share of employed population in agriculture per total employed workforce in the context of small farms and subsistence agriculture, means that the goods produced are being largely designed for the self-consumption household, hence EU food quality standards are not always applicable to such products.