Communicative and globalizing impacts of food labels: an Australian study

Abstract

This article analyzes the impacts of the Australian Federal Government’s food labeling reforms on the formation of food practices and the market for local food products. It considers how the inclusion of product and ingredient origin information blurs the distinction between ‘domestic’ and ‘foreign’ food products, and foregrounds different ‘support local’ behaviors. Findings from the study highlight the influence of structural and cultural factors, complemented by the strategic use of media tools, in shaping how food labels function as mechanisms to mediate domestic and transnational food practices. Retail concentration, support for the ‘buy local’ discourse, and the mediating influence of supermarket food media are presented as key factors that underpin the diffusion of and the demand for branded products and local food products in Australia. The impacts of the food origin labeling regulations on Australia’s highly concentrated grocery retail sector and export markets for Australian food products are also discussed.

What are food media (messages)? A scoping review to clarify food media, food messages and food content in academic writing

“…The majority of researchers agree on this, although the framing of this informing is sometimes presented as positive, sometimes as negatively. Positive, for example, as food media offer an opportunity to “purvey practical knowledge of cookery skills” (Xu and Lee, 2020, p. 101) or to make audience members more critical on food:Some mention that food media reflect (and help produce) growing consumer interest in the pleasures of food and cooking, and increasing media and consumer concern about food risk. In the case of the latter, there are now large media and food industries devoted to critiquing the negative health, environmental, animal welfare, and broader food systems impacts of industrialized foodways.…”

“…A third element highlights the communicative aspect typically associated with media. Food media are communicative spaces constructed through media consumption and media practices (Xu and Lee, 2020). However, these spaces take different forms according to various academics: most see the term more broadly, not seeing media only as a technology, but as their content as well.…”

“…An initial search on descriptions of food media does not seem to confirm shared conceptualizations; some referring in a very niche way to food media as “ an exploration of appropriating food and food activities as a medium for family communication and entertainment, across generations and over a distance” (Wei et al. , 2011, p. 1), others to food media as “communicative spaces where consumers can ‘creatively produce and enact their own food identities” (Abbots, 2015, p. 224; Xu and Lee, 2020, p. 100) and again others as “a relatively ubiquitous form of entertainment on television, in books and magazines across the world.” (Piper, 2013, p. 347).…”