Formal and informal European quality assurance initiatives offering a connection between local gastronomy and small-scale farmers

Recent consumer research demonstrates that trust-worthiness of food chain actors and the openness of food manufacturers are strongly related to consumer confidence in food (Macready et al., 2020). Thus, the assumption of SFSC promoters is that this greater transparency translates into greater consumer confidence in producers and as a result more social, equitable and fairer trading practices between producers and consumers. Quality assurance and certification are the most common means used to communicate transparency and openness in both conventional and sustainable supply chains (UN environment, 2017). Prior research demonstrates that there are a variety of ways in which assurance and certification can be organized in order to credibly guarantee quality (Loconto, 2017a). Within this context, the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture has commissioned AGRI KULTI to develop an information and quality assurance system, that identifies management patterns across the connection of local production and gastronomy, both in Hungary and in the European Union (Food Track project). For this reason, a comprehensive and comparative data analysis is required. Thus, this study consisted of exploring and analysing initiatives, businesses or organizations in the EU that can be classified as SFSCs and that communicate their sustainability quality attributions (e.g., organic, local, healthy, agro-ecological, traditional, etc.) through a variety of forms of certification.The aim of this study is to improve our understanding of how to reconnect cities and rural areas by establishing transparent and close links between local (and small-scale) producers with urban gastronomy. In order to achieve this aim, the following objectives were established: 1. Conduct a baseline study of quality assurance and information systems used across Europe in short circuit food chains using internet resources and an online survey when feasible 2. Elaborate 10 in-depth case studies that analyse the types of qualities and forms of quality assurance that have worked in practice.