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The purpose of this paper is to assess impact of literacy on the combinations of traceability information on food packages of chilled chicken nuggets and fish fingers consumers choose.

A discrete choice experiment, belonging to the “stated preference method” was designed to meet the purpose of this study with 512 German and Greek consumers. According to this method, the information is gathered using methods of distinct preference asking individuals face to face questions about their behaviour.

The results indicate that literacy has an impact on the combinations of information consumers choose; specific information is most useful and sought by high- and low-literate consumers; and price is an important factor for the consumer choices presented in the current study, but cannot overshadow other equally important factors.

Marketing issues are raised because of the importance and utility consumers attach to traceability systems.

This is a novel research concerning literacy’s impact on the combinations of package information chosen by consumers in Germany and Greece in relation to the two studied chilled chicken and fish products (i.e. chilled chicken nuggets and fish fingers).

This paper seeks to explore two issues, namely: whether Greek consumers are interested in information provided to them for beef meat through systems of traceability, and whether they are willing to pay in order to acquire specific information for beef meat.

The approach is taken is discrete choice modeling with a multinomial logit approach treating 11 different types of information.

Consumers are generally willing to pay higher for traceable beef, but not all variables have equal and/or positive importance for consumers. For instance, brand is an important distinguishing factor only for higher educated respondents, but information on animal health provides negative utility for all respondents.

Marketing strategy issues are raised, as the importance and utility consumers attach to traceability systems'‐based information varies.

This paper provides further evidence on what information traceability systems should contain.

The concept of “traceability as a strategy and mandatory initiative” has replaced that of “traceability as a cost of a business or as a voluntary responsibility”. This implies that the introduction of a traceability system should be perceived and positioned as a catalyst for better business practices. However, despite these benefits, a traceability system is also investment‐worthy. Hence, the value of investment in a traceability system constitutes a matter of considerable concern and debate for both practitioners and academics alike. This paper seeks to present a cost‐benefit evaluation applied in a natural mineral water company regarding the pilot deployment of an electronic‐based traceability system.

This is a case based study.

Based on the experience described previously, a high‐level framework is generated that any organisation can refer to as a proper guideline in order to demonstrate how the costs and benefits can be compared for overall evaluation of the deployment of any traceability system. The details of the framework are described by applying it to a specific case.

The present framework has theoretical interest for replicability in a different number of food sectors.

The paper contributes to closing the existing gap regarding the theoretical approach that food traceability systems can adopt when their costs and benefits are investigated.