Trust in Food A Comparative and Institutional Analysis

Scandals in food, growth of supermarket power, new technologies and crises in obesity have shaken popular trust in food across Europe. The BSE epidemic, concern over GM foods, dioxin scares and avian flu have placed consumer trust and how to restore it at the top of government agendas. Uncovering surprising differences between countries, Trust in Food examines these issues to challenge the idea of the consumer as a sovereign individual and to demonstrate how consumption is institutionalized within societies.

UNNI KJAERNES is Senior Researcher at the National Institute for Consumer Research, Oslo, Norway. She is co-ordinator of the Trust in Food project. She has published widely on food consumption, consumer concerns and food policy and is co-editor of Regulating Markets: Regulating People: On Food and Nutrition Policy.

MARK HARVEY is Senior Research Fellow at the ESRC Centre for Research on Innovation and Competition, University of Manchester, UK. His research focuses on economic sociology and innovation, in particular biotechnology, retailing, consumption and food. His recent publications include Exploring the Tomato: Transformations in Nature, Economy and Society and he is co-editor of Qualities of Food.

ALAN WARDE is Professor of Sociology and Co-Director of the ESRC Centre for Research on Innovation and Competition, University of Manchester, UK. He has published extensively in the fields of food and consumption. He is author of Consumption, Food and Taste: Culinary Antinomies and Commodity Culture, co-author of Eating Out: Social Differentiation, Consumption and Pleasure and co-editor of both Ordinary Consumption and Qualities of Food.