Zero-tolerance discourse in food safety and future agenda for common ground

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24380118
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Agro-economics
• Research Institution: Ibaraki University
• Principal Investigator: TACHIKAWA Masashi 茨城大学, 農学部, 教授 (40356324)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): MIKAMI Naoyuki 北海道大学, 高等教育推進機構, 准教授 (00422014) ; SAKURAI Seiichi 千葉大学, 園芸学研究科, 教授 (60334174) ; YAMAGUCHI Tomiko 国際基督教大学, 教養学部, 上級准教授 (80425595) ; OOYAMA Toshio 立教大学, 経済学部, 教授 (00221838) ; MATSUO Makiko 東京大学, 公共政策, 大学院特任研究員 (40422274)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): TAKAHASHI Yuichiro 農林水産政策研究所, 評価・食料領域, 主任研究官 (10392573)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: フードシステム / 食品安全 / ゼロトレランス

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Food industry sometimes claim “zero” to make appeals to consumers that their products are free of something undesirable, such as GMOs and radioactive materials. These claims cause problems upstream and downstream. The purpose of the project is to elucidate various issues and impacts related to zero-tolerance discourses employed by food industry, and search for possible common ground to be reached to avoid undesirable impact of such discourses.
We found that zero-tolerance discourses are not scientifically justified, but policy-makers sometimes employ a similar strategy to earn public trust. Based on statistical analysis of survey, we found major characteristics of consumers who are inclined to stick to “zero”. Female with abundant cultural capital tend to have this orientation. We also organized participatory session to find common ground for zero discourse. Role play discussions were employed with three kinds of stakeholder and various implications were drawn.

Free Research Field

フードシステム学