Consumer Science Task Force

Background

Food choice and dietary behaviour are among the most important lifestyle factors determining human health and well-being. It is therefore of utmost importance to both the food industry and public policymakers but also to consumer representatives to better understand the reasons behind consumers’ food choices.

Objectives

The Consumer Science Task Force aims to provide a better understanding of consumers’ food perceptions and behaviours in order to support consumers in making well-informed and healthier food choices.

Impact

The task force will help understand how consumers react towards new food technologies, how they assess risks and benefits and how they make choices. Understanding their behaviour will help identify the most suitable information to avoid that consumer perceptions are not based on actual facts. Consequently, industry, policy makers and regulatory agencies will be able to engage more meaningfully with the public to inform them and support them in making appropriate decisions.

Activities

Consumer Relevant Risk Communication: Recommendations to Facilitate Informed Decision-Making by Consumers regarding acceptance of emerging food technologies

Building on the conclusions of the previous expert group on risk and benefit perception of new technologies, the task force decided to undertake a new activity on risk communication. This review will provide a systematic analysis of risk communication in the area of food technology. An important outcome will be the development of concrete and actionable recommendations for a risk communication strategy focused on consumer priorities as well as technical information about risk assessment.

The expert group will organise a roundtable with various experts to discuss the scientific content of the paper before submitting it to a peer-reviewed journal.

Workshop

The task force is also planning to make the results of the activity available to a wider audience, and get input from a variety of stakeholders. The task force will therefore organise a workshop, inviting academic experts, scientists from industry, as well as stakeholders who are in charge of informing consumers. The outcome of the workshop will be published in a summary report and will be widely distributed.

This activity will allow risk experts and others who communicate about new food technologies to take into account consumers’ risk perceptions (which include benefit perception, ethical concerns and other factors usually not considered by risk experts) when they are setting up risk communication strategies. This will in turn facilitate consumer informed decision-making with regards to acceptance or rejection of emerging food technologies.

Consumer Response to Novel Agri-Food Technologies: Implications for predicting consumer acceptance of emerging food technologies

Public acceptance of technology is not something that can be taken for granted. This expert group will illustrate how this is particularly true for the agro-food sector. The paper will first review various case studies and will then derive some theoretical frameworks. The technologies that have been identified for the case studies include:

Nutrigenomics
Genetically Modified Foods
Nanotechnologies
Animal cloning
Irradiation
Technologies that are generally accepted

The aim of the paper is to:

Create a framework describing the way in which consumers form their opinion and choice behaviour towards new food technology.

The paper has been published in Trends in Food Science and Technology.

Food Choice, Energy Balance and its Determinants

Both physical activity and food intake have been the object of large bodies of research. In particular, the literature on determinants of food choice and dietary intake is broad and creates the impression that every conceivable factor in some way or another has an impact on how, when, and what we eat. This makes the analysis of the causes of obesity a complex issue. When human beings make consistent changes in their patterns of behaviour over time, we tend to assume that they adapt to changes in their environment. But which of the many changes in the environment do they react to, and how?

The expert group provides economic and psychological approaches to explain how human beings adapt their food intake and their level of physical activity to changes in the environment. Economic approaches, trying to explain behaviour leading to weight gain and obesity are contrasted with psychological approaches.

The paper gives some insight into the various mechanisms of adaptive behaviour determining food intake and physical activity, and suggests that a broad view is necessary for understanding the ways in which commonly advocated policy instruments can affect energy-related behaviour.

The paper will soon be re-submitted to a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

Task Force Collaborators

2012 Members

Dr. Carel Vereijken - Chair -	Danone	DE

Ms. Isil Cakmak	Ülker Bisküvi	TR
Mr. Edouard Casala	Bunge Europe	BE
Dr. Karen Cunningham	Coca-Cola Europe	UK
Dr. Marco Franci	Soremartec Italia - Ferrero Group	IT
Dr. Johanna Kuenzel	Nestlé	CH
Dr. René Lion	Unilever	NL
Dr. Gary Mendelson	Solae Europe	RU
Dr. Michel Rogeaux	Danone	FR
Dr. Josephine Wills	EUFIC	BE

Ms. Fabienne Malherbe	ILSI Europe	BE
Ms. Ria Dewit	ILSI Europe	BE

Expert Group Risk Communication

Prof. Lynn Frewer - Chair-	University of Newcastle	UK

Ms. Mary Brennan	University of Newcastle	UK
Dr. Arnout Fischer	Wageningen University	NL
Dr. René Lion	Unilever	NL
Dr. Ree Meertens	University Maastricht	NL
Dr. Gene Rowe	Consultant	UK
Prof. Michael Siegrist	ETH Zürich	CH
Prof. Wim Verbeke	University of Ghent	BE
Dr. Carel Vereijken	Danone	NL

Ms. Fabienne Malherbe	ILSI Europe	BE

Expert Group Consumer Response to Novel Agri-Food Technologies

Prof. Lynn Frewer - Chair-	University of Newcastle	UK

Dr. Karin Bergmann	Consultant	DE
Ms. Mary Brennan	University of Newcastle	UK
Dr. Ree Meertens	University Maastricht	NL
Dr. Gene Rowe	Consultant	UK
Prof. Michael Siegrist	ETH Zürich	CH
Prof. Wim Verbeke	University of Ghent	BE
Dr. Carel Vereijken	Danone	NL

Ms. Fabienne Malherbe	ILSI Europe	BE

Expert Group Food Choice, Energy Balance and its Determinants

Prof. Klaus Grunert - Chair-	University of Aarhus	DK

Dr. Erin Alexander	Nestlé Research Center	CH
Dr. Karen Cunningham	Coca-Cola Europe	UK
Dr. Gerd Harzer	Consultant	US
Prof. Richard Shepherd	University of Surrey	UK
Dr. Bruce Traill	University of Reading	UK
Prof. Bente Wold	University of Bergen	NO

Ms. Fabienne Malherbe	ILSI Europe	BE

Publication

P. Leathwood, D. Richardson, P. Sträter, P. Todd and H. van Trijp. Consumer Understanding of Nutrition and Health Claims: Sources of Evidence. British Journal of Nutrition 2007;98(3):474-484.

For more information, please contact info@ilsieurope.be.