AGRI-01 Observatory – Agricultural and food economics and rural appraisal
07/AGRI-01 — Agricultural and Food Economics and Rural Appraisal

Food safety and quality

Research topic of the field
231
publications
5,639
citations
184
researchers
36
institutions
57%
in Q1 journals
The topics most often intertwined with this one, year by year

The topic studies food safety and quality from an economic and consumer perspective. It asks how people perceive food risks, how far they trust control systems and how much they pay for guarantees such as traceability, certifications or zero residues. It uses choice experiments, sensory analysis, focus groups and food-related lifestyle surveys. Recent research looks at blockchain traceability, new genomic techniques, novel foods and plant-based meat analogues, zero-residue certification and the herbal tea market.

Description written by AI from the keywords, journals, most-cited works and recent works of the topic.

01
Indicators
Output and impact
95
publications since 2021
76
publications 2016–2020
+25%
compared with 2016–2020
18%
share signed by the most active 5%

The last share tells how far the topic passes through few hands: in the field it ranges from 12% to 39%. 18% means that the topic is widespread, with no recognisable centre. Signatures are counted, not papers: an article with four authors on the topic weighs four times, because the question is how much of the work passes through few people.

Trend over time and quality of outlets

Documents and citations per year

documentscitations received
251,00019750135006250002007: 1 documents20072008: 8 documents2009: 2 documents20092010: 1 documents2011: 10 documents20112012: 10 documents2013: 7 documents20132014: 4 documents2015: 16 documents20152016: 15 documents2017: 14 documents20172018: 18 documents2019: 13 documents20192020: 16 documents2021: 22 documents20212022: 19 documents2023: 6 documents20232024: 17 documents2025: 15 documents20252007: 1 citations received2008: 4 citations received2009: 12 citations received2010: 22 citations received2011: 21 citations received2012: 34 citations received2013: 47 citations received2014: 59 citations received2015: 104 citations received2016: 129 citations received2017: 171 citations received2018: 217 citations received2019: 308 citations received2020: 419 citations received2021: 536 citations received2022: 642 citations received2023: 643 citations received2024: 695 citations received2025: 822 citations received
Citations received each year by papers on the topic.

Journal quartiles (SJR · SCImago)

213with SJR
Q1 122 (57%)
Q2 51 (24%)
Q3 18 (8%)
Q4 22 (10%)

Attention in the last three years

−13%
citations received, relative to the field
−35%
papers published, relative to the field
2,160
citations received 2023–2025

The topic is declining: citations received by its papers went from 1,597 (2020–2022) to 2,160 (2023–2025), while those of the whole field grew 1.55 times. Citations received in those years by all papers on the topic are counted, including older ones.

Who leads the topic in the last three years

  • Giovanni Sogari · PARMA · 210 citations received 2023–2025 from papers on the topic
  • Vincenzina Caputo · Enti stranieri · 170 citations received 2023–2025 from papers on the topic
  • Cristina Mora · PARMA · 126 citations received 2023–2025 from papers on the topic
  • Marzia Ingrassia · PALERMO · 123 citations received 2023–2025 from papers on the topic
  • Carla Cavallo · SALERNO · 116 citations received 2023–2025 from papers on the topic
02
People
Who works on it

Most active researchers on the topic

By papers on the topic. The last column still shows specialisation, to tell apart those who work on it a lot in absolute terms from those who work on it above all.

NameInstitutionPapers on the topich-indexSpecialisation
Marzia Ingrassia Università degli Studi di Palermo 14 21
15.00
Stefania Chironi Università degli Studi di Palermo 12 19
14.76
Simona Bacarella Università degli Studi di Palermo 11 16
18.27
Francesco Caracciolo Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II 8 36
2.09
Luca Altamore Università degli Studi di Palermo 8 15
16.61
Vincenzina Caputo Foreign institutions 8 35
2.93
Pietro Columba Università degli Studi di Palermo 7 19
10.57
Giuseppe Antonio Di Vita Università degli Studi di Catania 7 31
1.79
Maria Angela Perito Università degli Studi di Teramo 7 17
5.54
Giovanni Sogari Università degli Studi di Parma 7 34
3.52
Carla Cavallo Università degli Studi di Salerno 6 20
5.36
Giovanni Cicia Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II 6 26
2.91
Mario D'Amico Università degli Studi di Catania 6 32
1.94
Simona Naspetti Università Politecnica delle Marche 6 24
3.83
Daniela Ivana Laura Spina Università degli Studi di Catania 6 14
4.89

Who is most specialised in this topic

Not those who published the most on it, but those who devote the largest share of their output to it compared with the field average. Above 1 there is specialisation; the tick marks parity. Researchers with fewer than three papers on the topic are excluded.

NameInstitutionPapers on the topicSpecialisation
Simona Bacarella Università degli Studi di Palermo 11
18.27
Luca Altamore Università degli Studi di Palermo 8
16.61
Marzia Ingrassia Università degli Studi di Palermo 14
15.00
Stefania Chironi Università degli Studi di Palermo 12
14.76
Pietro Columba Università degli Studi di Palermo 7
10.57
Maria Angela Perito Università degli Studi di Teramo 7
5.54
Carla Cavallo Università degli Studi di Salerno 6
5.36
Daniela Ivana Laura Spina Università degli Studi di Catania 6
4.89
Simona Naspetti Università Politecnica delle Marche 6
3.83
Giovanni Sogari Università degli Studi di Parma 7
3.52

Most active institutions

The number tells how much work on the topic comes from each institution; specialisation tells how much the topic weighs within the institution compared with the field average. A small, focused institution can be more specialised than a large one that does everything.

InstitutionPapers on the topicSpecialisation
Università degli Studi di Palermo 64
1.78
Università degli Studi di Catania 54
1.77
Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II 37
1.06
Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna 31
0.90
Università degli Studi di Parma 31
3.32
Università degli Studi di Foggia 23
1.19
Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro 22
0.84
Foreign institutions 15
0.61
Università degli Studi di Milano 15
0.73
Università degli Studi di Teramo 15
3.78
03
Where
In Italy and worldwide

Institutions in Italy

35institutions of the field work on the topic (with at least one paper)
  1. Catania28
  2. Bologna23
  3. Parma23
  4. Palermo18
  5. Napoli Federico II (Portici)17
  6. Foggia14
  7. Teramo14
  8. Padova (Legnaro)11
27 more institutions on the map · circles proportional to papers on the topic

International collaboration

    04
    Research
    Topics, journals and publications

    Related topics

    The topics that most often appear in the same papers. The number is the papers in common.

    Consumer behaviour · 78 Agri-food marketing and communication · 38 Geographical indications and certification · 28 Governance and institutions · 25 Food supply chains · 24 Organic farming · 24

    Recurring keywords

    food safetyfood qualitywillingness to payconsumer behaviorconsumer preferenceshelf lifesustainabilityorganic foodsensory analysischoice experimentconsumerfocus groupgeographical indicationfood quality schemeconsumer perceptionsensory testrisk perceptionsensory evaluationtraceabilityconsumer attitudeorganicsensory attributesensory marketingsensory quality

    Main journals

    Most cited publications on the topic

    Explore the Observatory → All topics