Perceptions of voluntary horizontal confidential food safety data sharing: an exploratory interview study with food...

Voluntary horizontal sharing of confidential food safety data among companies for joint analysis can improve food safety, efficiency, and decision-making, especially for rare events. Despite its potential benefits, horizontal data sharing in the food industry has lagged, with limited research exploring the reasons for hesitation. To address this gap, we conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with 27 food industry leaders. Four themes emerged: (1) benefits of data sharing, (2) technical barriers, (3) trust as a determinant of data sharing decisions, and (4) data governance as a solution. Across these themes, we found that companies face trade-offs when deciding to share food safety data, weighing risks against benefits. Data sharing decisions were strongly influenced by trust in stakeholders (e.g., industry peers, regulatory bodies, customers) and in data protection measures. Data governance emerged as a solution to concerns stemming from trust, such as loss of control once data is shared. Taken together, the findings reveal underlying tensions between individual firm incentives and collective benefits, including uneven cost-benefit distributions, opportunism concerns, and participation cost asymmetries. These findings offer timely insights to guide data sharing initiatives and prioritize areas for future research.