CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY COMMUNICATION AND THE FOOD INDUSTRY

Sustainability has become a relevant issue for consumers due to human rights violations and the environmental problems society faces. These problems are a consequence of unmeasured consumerism and massive production, which has led to the questioning of the current production-consumption paradigm. This has resulted in the creation of Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives by companies and an increased interest in communicating them to their key stakeholders. This literature review, including the analysis of 77 publications printed in English from 2000 to 2012, concentrates on the techniques and media used by companies in the food and beverage sector to communicate their CSR strategies to consumers as strategic stakeholders. This is relevant not only for businesses of all industries, but could incentivize further research on CSR communication and the use of the Web as a determinant of consumer behaviour in the aforementioned industry.