Bente Halkier og Lotte Holm:
Trust in food: Food consumption practice
Food consumption has become part of the political agenda in Denmark, in that responsibilities for environmental and similar concerns are increasingly being transferred to ordinary consumers. This article discusses how this new political agenda has influenced the every day understandings and practices as regards food consumption. It commences with a discussion of the concept of trust and its relevance to risk and handling risk in the arena of food consumption. Data come from a telephone survey carried out among a representative sample of adults in Denmark. On the one hand, Danish respondents expressed a general trust, and felt that the foods they eat are not harmful. On the other, they distrusted the safety of a list of specific but ordinary foods found on the market. In order to minimize risks, respondents employed differentiated shopping strategies, reflecting the structure of the food market. A majority of them replied that their shopping practices are influenced by concerns about health and environment, while only 8% report no concern at all about these issues. Danish consumers trusted personal networks more than either public food control systems or market mechanisms in order to procure good and safe food.
