Food quality is an essential aspect of the food industry. Time-temperature indicator (TTI) technology has the capability to provide information on temperature fluctuations that temperature-sensitive food products have undergone. However, the adoption of the TTI technology in the consumer market has yet to materialize despite the many benefits that TTIs bring to food manufacturers, retailers and consumers. One of the reasons for this could be the general lack of knowledge regarding consumers' perceptions of TTIs. The aim of this study is to understand the consumers' knowledge, interest and perceptions of TTIs. To reach this aim, 16 focus group discussions and a quantitative survey were conducted in four European countries (Finland, Greece, France and Germany) during May-October 2012. Consumers' views on both the TTI technology concept and two commercially available TTI applications were studied. The results of the study show that consumers in all countries appreciate and understand TTI technology and associate differing benefits with it, especially so in warmer countries. On the other hand, the studied applications did not meet all consumers' expectations implying the need for further work to enable TTIs to gain a wider acceptance. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. INTRODUCTIONFood law and the recent regulatory changes in the food industry in Europe emphasize the importance of a structured quality assurance system using the hazard analysis critical control point method and good manufacturing and hygiene practices. Such a system is based on prevention and control throughout the manufacturing process rather than on testing and verification of final products. Its application requires a continuous monitoring and control of critical parameters throughout the manufacturing process not only at the production level but also at the entire food chain from production through distribution and storage including domestic storage at the consumer level. the most impacting factors to prevent the spoilage of temperature-sensitive products such as meat, fish and poultry. From the retailers' perspective, spoiled products reaching consumers' fridges might lead to loss of reputation, harm to the brand and extensive costs and efforts to fix the damage. From the manufacturers' viewpoint, and especially from the viewpoint of small and medium-size companies, the outcomes might be even more serious because of the low amount of resources to deal with such a situation.To prevent spoiled products falling into the hands of consumers, different technologies have been developed. For instance, an electronic nose has been introduced for quality control assessment in modified atmosphere packaged (MAP) products.2 Another technology holding potential for ensuring the quality of temperature-sensitive food products, such as meat, fish or chilled ready-to-eat foods, is intelligent label technology.3 This technology enables monitoring the integrity of the cold chain through the entire value chain from the manufacturer's facilities to consumers' fr...

The article from this special issue was previously published in Packaging Technology in Science, Volume 28, Issue 4, 2015. For completeness we are including the title page of the article below. The full text of the article can be read in Issue 28:4 on Wiley Online Library: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pts.2105/abstract