The study of risk perception has been punctuated with controversy, conflict and paradigm shifts. Despite more than three decades of research, understanding of risk assessment remains fragmented and incoherent. Until recently, food and eating has been viewed as a low-risk activity and perceived risk surrounded matters of hygiene or lack of food. Consequently, theories of risk have been constructed with reference to environmental and technological hazards, such as nuclear power, whilst neglecting food issues. However, following a decade of 'food scares', attention has moved towards the study of food risk. Within this, food risk research has focused almost exclusively upon attempting to explain the divergence of opinion that exists between experts and the lay public whilst neglecting to address it. The following discussion provides a brief historical overview of theories and approaches that have been applied to the study of risk perception, continues with a summary of findings derived from food risk research and concludes with a discussion of methodological issues and some projections for future research.

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Dietary guidelines consistently advocate the reduction of fat in the diet and the food industry has responded by introducing a vast range of reduced fat foods on to the market. However, reduced fat diets are difficult for people to maintain. Nutrition education is at a critical crossroads, such that consumers have received the message to reduce fat in the diet, but are unable or unwilling to comply with this information so that overall health status can be improved. Better understanding of the factors that influence fat intake will help to explain why dietary change is so difficult to sustain. Sensory studies and focus group discussions were conducted with consumers to assess their perceptions, acceptance and preferences for reduced fat products. The results implied that consumers associate reduced fat foods with inferior sensory properties and perceive them with a degree of scepticism and mistrust.

Health promotion, with its concern with empowerment and autonomy, must recognize the agency of its target population. Based on 85 in-depth interviews with 10- to 11-year-old children throughout Northern Ireland, this paper argues that it is necessary to focus on the social relations of children if we are to understand and prevent childhood smoking. Addressing the complex issue of childhood agency, it is argued that regardless of various restrictions to their choices, children can act intentionally in constructing their identities. Instead of viewing the smoking children as communicating with the adult world, we focus on smoking as negotiation of status within the children's culture. Such negotiations utilize symbolism derived from and shared with the 'adult world'. It is important that those analyzing children's lives understand children's ideas and behaviour on their own terms. We must make sure that the very concepts in which the children's experiences are put are appropriate ones. It is suggested that the metaphor 'rite of passage' and terminology such as peer 'pressure' versus adult 'influence', commonly used to analyse the children's smoking behaviour, may actually conceal important aspects of childhood agency.

This paper presents qualitative data from Irish children and adolescents on their experiences in relation to alcohol consumption. A sample of 78 participants (average age 11.5) was selected. A proportion of this initial sample were interviewed at intervals over a period of three years. The participants' consumption patterns were analyzed and generated four categories: covert unsanctioned, overt unsanctioned, overt sanctioned, and peer unsanctioned. As the children got older, peer drinking became a stronger feature of the data, although it mediated other patterns of behaviour. Although children displayed agency in circumventing adult rules relating to alcohol consumption, the participants were subjected to structural constraints by virtue of their status as children. Moreover, the agentic powers of the participants were procured through their social network rather than arising from an essentialist agency possessed by each individual child. The impact of childhood as a structural dimension weakened to some extent as the participants got older and had more freedom to circumvent adult-defined barriers to alcohol consumption.