Customer loyalty has taken over as the number one ‘top of mind’ issue for food retailers and suppliers, according to the 2003 worldwide survey conducted by CIES - The Food Business Forum.

Based in Paris, CIES surveyed almost 400 food business executives from Europe, North America, South American, who said customer loyalty was top of their list, followed by food safety and ranked last year’s number one - internationalization of food retailing - in third place.

With fears of global recession at number four, CIES said that the latest rankings all point to intensifying competition, while the continued importance of food safety shows the pressure on food companies to retain the trust of consumers.

CIES added that other issues such as B2C e-commerce have dropped down food retail agendas to become secondary concerns.