Food — A Fact of Life

Abstract

Much is made these days of the need for consumer information on food packages, designed to help the consumer organize diets conducive to good health. The British Nutrition Foundation has always believed that such information may be of little value or may be positively harmful if consumers do not understand it or know how to use it. During a study undertaken to determine how best to teach young adults the basics of nutrition, we discovered that there was widespread ignorance, not only about nutrition but also about food production, manufacture and distribution — indeed about all matters relating to the provision of foodstuffs to consumers.