Food traceability has become mandatory since 1st January 2005 in the European Union. Traceability of products and activities in the supply chain has become a new factor of competitiveness in agribusiness and is deemed to be an important criterion of perception of food product quality and safety for consumers. This paper has three objectives: i) to get a deeper understanding of the role of the "ability-to- trace" in consumer decision- making process with respect to food, ii) to measure consumers' acceptability for food traceability, iii) to check the differences of these matters across twelve European countries in order to highlight any specificity. The purpose is based on the analysis of the verbatim recorded within twenty four focus groups discussions carried- out in autumn 2005.