Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 178 Document Number: C30711
Notes:
Paper presented at Tropentag 2010, Conference on International Research on Food Security, Natural Resource Management and Rural Development, Zurich, Switzerland, September 14-16, 2010. 1 page.
4 pages, Excess intake of energy, sugars, salt and saturated fats is an important causal factor of obesity and related non-communicable diseases. In order to help consumers to make healthy food choices, many European countries have developed proposals for “front-of-pack” food labeling, intended as an integration to the nutritional information provided by the mandatory nutritional declaration. Based on the European strategic program “Farm to Fork”, the intention is to achieve a harmonized front-of-pack label proposal by Q4 2022.
Among the different proposals, the one which received most attention by experts and greater feedback by the EU member countries is the Nutri-Score, a tool based on an algorithm whereby a “quality” category ranging from A to E is assigned to each single food on a background colored from dark green to dark orange. As an alternative to Nutri-Score, the NutrInform Battery has been developed by Italy in association with a few other EU member states: this proposal is objectively alternative to the Nutri-Score proposal due to a different underlying philosophy, in particular for its informative and educational intent rather than purchase orientation.
The present document, prepared by the Scientific Board and reviewed by the Scientific Council of the Italian Society of Human Nutrition, represents the scientific-based position of the Society in relation to the general theme of front-of-pack labeling and in particular to the dualism created between the Nutri-Score and NutrInform Battery proposals.
20 pages., Online via UI e-subscription, This article centered on the representation of food additives as a matter of key importance to the public's conceptualization of them. Findings from a systematic qualitative study of the magazines of two Belgian consumer organizations revealed that additives were seen as providing no benefits to consumers, for they could be used to reduce the quality of both the ingredients and the production process. They were perceived as a means of deceiving the public, with portrayal of consumers as powerless in the struggle for control over the types and amounts of additives they ingested. In turn, the limitations were seen as a failure of government and scientific institutions to provide the necessary protection.
26 pages, This research is intended to initiate understanding of how obesity in the South persists even though the majority of inhabitants subscribe to a faith that discourages unhealthy lifestyles. Grounded in the Cognitive Dissonance Theory, this study examined Protestant evangelical Christians in the South (N = 11), who participated in semi-structured interviews. The first emergent theme was that, to these Southerners, the purpose of food is for sustenance and survival, as well as for bringing people together. Most participants reported having an average level of knowledge of nutrition and health. Furthermore, participants generally agreed that marketing or educational efforts had little effect on their understanding of nutrition. Another theme emerged when participants provided Biblical references to food or health. “The Body is a Temple” and “gluttony” were the most common Biblical concepts. All participants referred to taste or desirability as the driver of their food selections. Furthermore, most participants claimed habitual gluttony as a personal experience in their lives. This study concluded that subjects employed two modes of “trivializing” as a way of resolving dissonance. Some participants justified their eating habits based on Southern culture, while others explained that their church culture supported unhealthy eating as a means of gathering in fellowship.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: C35964
Notes:
86 pages., "Most Americans have a voracious appetite for new and different foods, and no area of English comes from such a wide array of languages as the words we use for the foods we eat."