Food culture as a political tool – meal construction during the Swedish EU‐chairmanship 2001‡

Abstract

AbstractThe aim of this study was to analyse how the European Union (EU) ministerial meals during Sweden's EU‐chairmanship 2001 were devised, and how the official representatives of Sweden chose to interpret and present a national image based on local and regional food identities. The manufacture of the Swedish culinary profile was compared with the same process during Finland's EU‐chairmanship 1999 and Denmark's EU‐chairmanship 2002. Sixteen professionals involved in the decision‐making process in the three countries were interviewed in 2001 and 2002. The regional food profile chosen in Sweden supported different political goals such as the idea of the production of local food and local economic development. Local and regional food culture had a broad and open definition, but the decisions as to what constituted local and regional food culture as served at the ministerial meals were made at the top political level. The central decision‐making process transformed the concept of a typical local and regional food culture into a political tool serving political goals, with the end product presented at different EU‐ministerial meals.