Food Provenance Research Articles

‘Nudging’ as an architect of more responsible consumer choice in food service provision: The role of restaurant menu design

The sector of food service provision generates substantial environmental and societal impacts. Environmental impacts are particularly pronounced in terms of carbon footprint build-up while societal impacts are reflected in often unhealthy food choice. These impacts should be minimised to facilitate progress of the sector towards sustainability. A significant share of the negative impacts from food service provision is attributed to irresponsible consumer choice which needs to be architected and made more society- and climate-benign. Customer ‘nudging’ is an effective tool of consumer choice architecture and yet little research has examined its application within the context of private food service provision. This study set to better understand the determinants of consumer choice when dining out and how consumer choice could be reinforced to make it more beneficial from the sustainability viewpoint. To this end, the study reported on the outcome of a consumer survey conducted among visitors to a UK casual dining restaurant where menu design was employed as a customer ‘nudging’ tool. The survey demonstrated that, next to price, food provenance and nutritional value determined consumer choice when dining out. This information should therefore be displayed on restaurant menus to enable educated, and more environment- and society-benign, food choice. While presenting the food carbon values on a menu was well perceived, some skepticism attached to their prospective use as a determinant of consumer choice was recorded. Recommendations were made on the design of the industry and policy-making interventions required to enhance the public appeal of this menu item.

Digital Technology and Agriculture: Foresight for Rural Enterprises and Rural Lives in New Zealand

Digital Technology and Agriculture: Foresight for Rural Enterprises and Rural Lives in New Zealand Bruce Small, PhD Abstract The sustainability and resilience of rural communities in New Zealand in the face of changing circumstances and conditions is gaining increasing media and academic attention with trends towards, and prediction of, rural decline. New and emerging digital technologies are an important driver of global change, offering both opportunities for, and threats to, business, welfare, and social-ecological sustainability, including rural enterprises and rural communities. Some of these technologies will have incremental influences on changing enterprises and supply chains, however, others may potentially be very disruptive to the current New Zealand agricultural system, rural enterprises and value chains, and rural lives. The purpose of this paper is to 1) contextualise factors influencing technology development and adoption, 2) survey new and emerging digital technologies and, 3) foresight some potential implications for agricultural enterprises and rural communities in the next 20 years. Precision agriculture, agricultural robotics, computerised farm management decision support, and the digitisation of agriculture are changing the nature, efficiency and transparency of agricultural production. However, the digital farming revolution is occurring in the context of a wide range of co-evolving technologies (many also digitally based), and social and political change, which open up new meaningful possibilities for living and working in rural and remote locations. At the same time, the requirements of consumers are changing to reflect a greater focus on sustainable agriculture, ethical food production and delivery, the social conditions of employees, and quality assurance, nutritional value, and provenance of food. There will be interplay between the evolving nature of rural lifestyles and rural enterprises wrought through technological development. Foresight endeavours, though fallible, may act as a springboard for rural residents to recognise and realise emerging opportunities and mitigate potential threats. Awareness of technological trajectories may help communities to strategically prepare for an increasingly digital future, enhancing their resilience and adaptability to inevitable change. Responsible technological development and responsible business practices will be key to engendering the increased trust and collaboration required amongst agricultural value chain participants in order to fully realise the potential benefits of digital agriculture. Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/jaes.v6n2a7

Stable isotope‐based location in a shelf sea setting: accuracy and precision are comparable to light‐based location methods

Summary Retrospective determination of location for marine animals would facilitate investigations of migration, connectivity and food provenance. Predictable spatial variations in carbon and nitrogen isotopes in primary production across shelf seas provide a basis for stable isotope‐based location. Here, we assess the accuracy and precision that can be obtained through dietary‐isotope‐based location methods. We build isoscapes from jellyfish tissues and use these to assign scallops of fixed and known individual location, and herring with well‐understood population‐level distributions in the North Sea. Accuracy and precision for retrospective isotope‐based location in the North Sea were of a similar order to light‐based location devices, with 75% of individual scallops assigned correctly to areas representing c. 30% of the North Sea, with a mean linear error on the order of 102 km. Applying assignment methods to an alternative migratory species (herring) resulted in ecologically realistic assignments consistent with fisheries survey data. Location methods based on dietary isotopes such as carbon and nitrogen recover the spatial origin of nutrients assimilated into tissues, and this may not correspond directly to the physical location if either the test animal or its prey is highly migratory. Stable isotope‐based location can be applied to any marine‐feeding organism or derived food product, but the ecological meaning of any assigned area will be more difficult to interpret for large, high trophic level, migratory animals with relatively slow isotopic assimilation rates.

Escaping to the country: Media, nostalgia, and the new food industries

ABSTRACTOver the past decade in the West, television cooking shows have popularized interest in the provenance of food against a backdrop of public concern about the practices of industrial food production. This article explores two series that offer self-sufficiency as a solution to the problem of industrial agriculture. Escape to River Cottage and Gourmet Farmer each centre on a narrative of a city-dweller moving to the country to set up a smallholding. With their nostalgia for an earlier—simultaneously unproblematic and emotionally fulfilling—time of food production, these series imagine a Utopian lifestyle in which audiences are encouraged to choose to produce and consume differently. That it is (middle-class) men who are rediscovering traditional food practices highlights how media discourses surrounding food production can become entangled in gendered representations that give rise to niche food products and experiences designed to ameliorate feelings of risk and uncertainty in contemporary food systems.

Small in scale but big in potential: Opportunities and challenges for fisheries certification of Indonesian small-scale tuna fisheries

Achieving sustainable fisheries and certifications can be challenging for developing countries, affecting the achievement of global seafood sustainability and food security. Indonesia is one of the world's leading producers of tuna products but struggles to achieve certification. Small-scale tuna fisheries are an important component of the Indonesian fisheries sector, especially with regard to employment and income. The Marine Stewardship Council is the most recognised fisheries certification scheme worldwide but is criticised for being inaccessible to small-scale fisheries. Fair Trade has traditionally focussed on land-based products, but recently developed a standard for capture fisheries. Traceability systems are important components of many fisheries certifications and are essential in ensuring product quality and food provenance. This paper discusses the challenges and opportunities facing Indonesian small-scale tuna fisheries achieving certification and implementing traceability. The outlook for certification of such fisheries is promising, given recent global and national developments but requires increasing commitment to communicate the importance and value of such schemes in developing countries.

The new politics of food: Television and the media/food industries

The provenance of food and the ethics of food production and consumption are increasingly a focus of media, particularly of television cooking shows. This is the result of complex dynamics of interaction between the media and food industries that are influencing consumer behaviours and business practices. This article offers a preliminary exploration of some of these relationships, focusing on Australian food television. Using two case studies that are arguably at opposite ends of the media/food spectrum – the first focusing on a niche lifestyle programme that advocates for small food producers and the second focusing on the televisual marketing strategies of a major supermarket – the article considers how relationships between media and food industries are not only investing food with new meaning and significance but are also opening up new markets and marketing strategies for food products and experiences.

Fresh paradoxes in food data

AbstractThis article frames some of the implications of consumer-facing ‘fresh food traceability systems’ for designers. These infrastructures, which support the production and transportation of perishable food, enable the tracking, or ‘traceback’ of different items as they move from farm to table. Food traceability presents a unique paradox: communicating new information about the provenance of food contradicts a longstanding history of obfuscation in the design of its packaging and advertising. In this article I analyze this paradoxical nature of food as a data object, and present designers with a series of contradictory positions they have to navigate when working with fresh food traceability systems. These include ambiguity regarding stakeholders, issues of schematization, and third order effects of ubiquitous food data.

Getting to know your food: the insights of indigenous thinking in food provenance

Western consumers are increasingly demanding to know the provenance of their food. In New Zealand, Māori tribal enterprises are engaged in the food producing sectors of farming and fisheries and, like other businesses seeking to remain competitive in global markets, are responding to the demand for provenance through developing systems for communicating the origin of foods to consumers. However, Māori are doing this in their own way, in a manner that authentically reflects their own understanding of place and expresses an indigenous animist perspective. It is argued that an animist approach to provenancing provides an authentic means of connecting Western consumers to nature in circumstances where they have become psychologically and physically abstracted. Animism provides a relational way of understanding the world, through which food products emerge as animated representations of reciprocal place-based relationships. It is considered that this indigenous approach can provide ‘an antidote’ to the alienating effects of modernity, where food products are experienced as inert compositions of elements that can be replicated and produced anywhere via industrial processes. Furthermore, it can provide a touchstone for differentiating between authentic provenance and the cynical use of provenance marketing that exploits the needs of alienated individuals for connection to place. A case study of indigenous provenance, Ahikā Kai, is offered to explain and illustrate the theoretical perspectives provided.

Challenges and practices in Halal meat preparation: a case study investigation of a UK slaughterhouse

Consumer concerns over the provenance of food that has been prepared in accordance with religious requirements has risen in importance. Instances of improper identification and sale of Halal meat-based products in particular have given rise to questions over the authenticity of such foods. Despite this and the rising demand for Halal foods across the globe, little research has been conducted around the specific issues that arise during their production. This paper presents a case study investigation of a slaughterhouse in the UK that prepares both Halal and non-Halal meat products. It aims to improve our understanding of the challenges that Halal food production presents. The extra requirements of Halal food preparation place additional burdens especially upon smaller processors. Future development of quality standards should take account of the abilities of smaller organisations and the constraints under which they operate. Additionally, food quality assurance standards and systems should highlight the specific requirements of food that has been prepared in accordance with religious requirements. While this study has highlighted the complexities of Halal food production, similar issues are likely to be present in the production of Kosher food, and such compliances may also be required of foods consumed by people of other faiths.

Eat, cook, grow: mixing human-computer interactions with human-food interactions

Our contemporary concerns about food range from food security to agricultural sustainability to getting dinner on the table for family and friends. This book investigates food issues as they intersect with participatory Internet culture -- blogs, wikis, online photo- and video-sharing platforms, and social networks -- in efforts to bring about a healthy, socially inclusive, and sustainable food future. Focusing on our urban environments provisioned with digital and network capacities, and drawing on such bottom-up sociotechnical trends as DIY and open source, the chapters describe engagements with food and technology that engender (re-)creative interactions. In the first section, Eat, contributors discuss technology-aided approaches to sustainable dining, including digital communication between farmers and urban consumers and a telematic dinner party at which guests are present electronically. The chapters in Cook describe, among other things, smart chopping boards that encourage mindful eating and a website that supports urban wild fruit foraging. Finally, Grow connects human-computer interaction with achieving a secure, safe, and ethical food supply, offering chapters on the use of interactive technologies in urban agriculture, efforts to trace the provenance of food with a Fair Tracing tool, and other projects. ContributorsJoon Sang Baek, Pollie Barden, Eric P. S. Baumer, Eli Blevis, Nick Bryan-Kinns, Robert Comber, Jean Duruz, Katharina Frosch, Anne Galloway, Geri Gay, Jordan Geiger, Gijs Geleijnse, Nina Gros, Penny Hagen, Megan Halpern, Greg Hearn, Tad Hirsch, Jettie Hoonhout, Denise Kera, Vera Khovanskaya, Ann Light, Bernt Meerbeek, William Odom, Kenton O'Hara, Charles Spence, Mirjam Struppek, Esther Toet, Marc Tuters, Katharine S. Willis, David L. Wright, Grant Young

Cooking up Consumer Anxieties about “Provenance” and “Ethics”

Provenance is fundamentally about foods' point of origin. It is thus, unsurprising that studies of food provenance typically focus on circumstances of production and the routes foods follow to get to situations of exchange and, to a lesser extent, final consumption. However, this dominant framing leads to an asymmetry of attention between production and consumption. By neglecting the situatedness of food purchase and use, much of what makes provenance meaningful and productive for consumers is missed. This paper draws upon qualitative and ethnographic data to explore why and how it sometimes matters where food comes from. What emerges is an expanded and problematized practical understanding of provenance, where concerns for the point of origin is generally inseparable from, and subsumed within, a broader range of ethical concerns about where food comes from.

Feeding on the edge: δ13C analysis of a macrofauna food web from disappearing seagrass beds in a polluted urban harbour – implications for biomonitoring and restoration efforts

Abstract Thirty‐five macrofaunal species were collected from several eelgrass (Zostera marina) beds in Boston Harbour to determine whether food provenance and carbon flow as measured by δ13C analysis differed for a seagrass community exposed to dense urbanization compared with those documented for populations distant from cities, and whether such isotopic determinations might be used for purposes of biomonitoring such disturbance. In support of other studies and a previous global synthesis, the majority of benthic and epibenthic fauna inhabiting Boston Harbour eelgrass beds were found to have δ13C values within the range, –20 to –17 ‰, indicative of epiphytic algae being the most important food source. However, the proportional abundance‐weighted assessment of the distribution of individual δ13C measurements was found to be quite different from that revealed by non‐quantitative, species‐only assessments. Because the chink shell, Lacuna vincta, which was the only species to demonstrate primary assimilation of eelgrass δ13C, numerically dominated the benthic food web in Boston Harbour, over three‐quarters of the total abundance of macroinvertebrates were likely to be directly dependent upon eelgrass carbon. Nevertheless, food web transfer, as measured through δ15N analysis, was extremely limited as no direct mechanism appeared to presently exist by which eelgrass carbon could be exclusively passed from chink shells to animals of higher trophic positions. The dietary fidelity of these animals while experiencing severe habitat loss due to anthropogenic pollution – neither a shift toward increased vascular plant detritivory nor toward increased planktonic algivory occurred – indicates that pathways of carbon flow may offer little use as an early warning biomonitor for gauging either individual stress or community‐level disturbance from coastal development. Because epiphytic algae are the major food source for most macrobenthos species rather than the vascular plants themselves, the possibility exists that seagrass simulacra might be used as interim installations in order to sustain communities until such time as the aquatic conditions improve to such a degree as to enable the successful restoration of the degraded beds. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In Practice

With childhood obesity becoming a serious problem in the UK, schools are an important environment to influence food intake and to challenge food-related behaviour. The Food for Life Partnership is one project that has capitalised on the potential of schools to address the issue of childhood obesity and encourage children to have a healthy relationship with food. School dinners took on a very different meaning when Jamie Oliver launched his 'Feed Me Better' campaign in 2005. The Channel 4 TV series, brought to the public's attention (and consequently to the forefront of the political agenda) the worrying eating habits of children. Since the airing of the series efforts to address the problems highlighted have been stepped up, none with less ambition than the Food for Life Partnership (FFLP). The partnership is funded until December 2011 by the Big Lottery Fund. It encompasses four food focused charities who are committed to working together to transform food culture across a network of schools and communities in England. Led by the Soil Association, the UK's leading food charity, the scheme builds upon their Food for Life enterprise, founded in 2003, which was transformed after Jamie Oliver's influence on government policy. The partnership now also includes the Health Education Trust, Focus on Food Campaign and Garden Organic. All four organizations are focused on improving children's relationship with food in English schools. Food, health and education are intrinsically linked. Habits are developed from a young age and schools are captive environments which have the potential to shape the behaviour of every individual, regardless of social background. With current figures showing that one in four children aged between 2-10 years are overweight or obese and with The British Medical Association suggesting that by 2020 this will rise to one quarter of children being obese in the UK; the spotlight is now on schools to do something to reverse these worrying statistics. The FFLP has therefore been developed to ensure that schools are equipped to provide children with the healthiest possible start in life. The FFLP is a programme and award scheme to aid healthy and sustainable food choices. The award scheme has 3 levels (bronze, silver and gold) which schools can work towards to improve areas such as food quality and provenance, and food education. The scheme requires a school to have a food policy; an action plan; and a School Nutrition Action Group (SNAG), which is a steering group that includes representatives from the whole school community. Schools will then have access to help, advice and expertise and online resources. The FFLP aims to get children thinking positively about food, through teaching them how to cook; establishing farm links so that children understand where the food they eat comes from; and by encouraging children to grow their own food at school. Having a whole school approach means food education is covered across the entire curriculum. The Soil Association also works closely with school caterers and has established the Food for Life Catering Mark which ensures that school meals are fresh, wholesome and healthy, and form part of a balanced diet. The link between socioeconomic status and eating habits cannot be ignored and the project is also keen to ensure that children from deprived backgrounds are eating a nutritious and balanced diet. Of the children entitled to a free school meal in England, 20% choose not to have them. In FFLP schools, free school meal take-up has increased by 13 percentage points in two years in primary schools, and 20 percentage points in secondary schools.1 This is a particularly significant achievement since half of all FFLP schools are in areas with high levels of deprivation. FFLP is therefore closing the gap on social disadvantage through helping those who need it the most. So far the scheme has been a huge success with 3,800 schools currently enrolled on the programme. …

Development and Validation of a Method to Determine the Boron Isotopic Composition of Crop Plants

We present a comprehensive chemical and mass spectrometric method to determine boron isotopic compositions of plant tissue. The method including dry ashing, a three-step ion chromatographic boron-matrix separation, and (11)B/(10)B isotope ratio determinations using the Cs(2)BO(2)(+) graphite technique has been validated using certified reference and quality control materials. The developed method is capable to determine δ(11)B values in plant tissue down to boron concentrations of 1 mg/kg with an expanded uncertainty of ≤1.7‰ (k = 2). The determined δ(11)B values reveal an enormous isotopic range of boron in plant tissues covering three-quarters of the natural terrestrial occurring variation in the boron isotopic composition. As the local environment and anthropogenic activity mainly control the boron intake of plants, the boron isotopic composition of plants can be used for food provenance studies.

Local Food Marketing as a Development Opportunity for Small UK Agri-Food Businesses

The study explores local food as a marketing opportunity for small food producers and identifies barriers to development. Research was conducted primarily through depth interviews, supplemented by a survey of food marketing group members in North-West England. The results of this local study were consistent with national survey data showing increasing consumer interest in food provenance, traceability and support for the local economy. Lack of an official and recognised definition of the term “local food” hindered marketing. Restricted access to finance and the burden of regulations were identified as barriers. Further, small business success was subjective and difficult to identify, since goals may be based on sustaining a lifestyle rather than profit.

Consumption of welfare-friendly food products in Great Britain, Italy and Sweden, and how it may be influenced by consumer attitudes to, and behaviour towards, animal welfare attributes

The interest in animal welfare and welfare-friendly food products has been increasing in Europe over the last 10 years. The media, highlighting traditional farming methods and food scares such as those related to salmonella, bovine spongiform encephalopathy/variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (BSE) and avian influenza, have brought the methods of animal farming to public attention. Concerns about farm animal welfare are reflected in the increase in the number of vegetarians and vegans and an increase in consumers wishing to purchase food which is more animal welfare-friendly. This paper considers consumers’ attitudes to animal welfare and to marketing practices, such as product labelling, welfare grading systems and food assurance marks using comparative data collected in a survey of around 1500 consumers in each of Great Britain, Italy and Sweden as part of the EU-funded Welfare Quality research project. The findings suggest a need for the provision of improved consumer information on the welfare provenance of food using appropriate product labelling and other methods.

Tracing the geographical origin of food: The application of multi-element and multi-isotope analysis

The globalisation of food markets and the relative ease with which food commodities are transported through and between countries and continents, means that consumers are increasingly concerned about the origin of the foods they eat. A growing number of research articles have been published in the last 5 years detailing the use of natural abundance isotope variation and elemental concentrations as geographic ‘tracers’ to determine the provenance of food. These investigations exploit the systematic global variations of stable hydrogen and oxygen isotope ratios in combination with elemental concentrations, including heavy isotope variations (e.g. strontium-87) and other biogeochemical indicators. This article reviews the developments in the application of multi-isotopic and multi-element methods in the emerging field of ‘Food Forensics’.

Indigestion of Identities

Indigestion of Identities

Distribution and coassociations of selected metals in seals of the Antarctic

Zinc, Cu, Cd, Pb, Ag, Ni, Co, Cr, Fe and Mn concentrations in some tissues of crabeater seal ( Lobodon carcinophagus), leopard seal ( Hydrurga leptonyx) and Weddell seal ( Leptonychotes weddelli) from the Antarctic were determined. Distinct inter-tissue differences in metal concentrations in seals were observed; liver contained maximum levels of Zn, Cu, Ag and Mn, whilst kidney showed the highest levels of Cd, Ni and Co. Muscle was characterized by low concentrations of all the elements analyzed. The metal concentrations in the vertebrates analyzed were compared with those for organisms originating from various aquatic areas. Significant correlations were found between the levels of several of the metals analyzed, e.g. between renal and hepatic concentrations of Zn and Cd. Strong relationships between the hepatic concentrations of some metals were found, e.g. CdZn. These two metals also showed a significant coassociation in their renal concentrations. The slope of the regression line for renal Cd/Zn was about three times higher than the hepatic one and this may reflect a relatively high Cd exposure, probably from specific food (squid and krill) provenance, of the seals analyzed.