Trust in food safety in Russia, Denmark and Norway

Abstract

In this paper we argue that institutional conditions should be taken into consideration when consumers trust in food safety is analysed. Our survey results demonstrate that levels of trust in food safety varies considerably across our three selected countries: Russian consumers expressing the lowest level of trust, Norwegian consumers the highest and Danish consumers expressing levels of trust in food safety which were in between. We find empirical evidence in all countries that consumers trust in food safety is related to their evaluation of how their national food control authorities perform, as well as to what extend they trust market mechanisms to secure food quality. However, while trust in food safety in the Scandinavian countries is more likely to rest on trust in public food control, trust in food safety more often depend on trust in market mechanisms in the St. Petersburg region.

Trust in the Australian food supply: Innocent until proven guilty

“…Zinn (2008) Archived at Flinders University: dspace.flinders.edu.au along with others (see Brown 2008 andMollering 2001) argue that trust has both a rational component which arises from experience of the source and an irrational component based on instinct and emotion. Diminishing trust in the food supply in other contexts has been associated with major food scares (Kjaernes et al 2007;Berg et al 2005;Berg 2004). Australia has not experienced a food scare of the magnitude of, say, BSE.…”

“…A number of authors have argued for diminishing trust in the food supply in light of food scares which have damaged trust in actors in the food chain (Biltgard 2008;Masood 1999;Kjaernes et al 2007;Berg et al 2005;Berg 2004). The Trust-in-Food survey conducted in seven European countries demonstrated that while retailers are trusted to maintain the safety of food products, other food actors including farmers, food authorities, the food manufacturing industry and the media, are distrusted by food consumers (Poppe & Kjaernes 2003).…”

The Health-Related Market in Czech Republic and Denmark: An Exploration of Consumption Experiences

“…While scholars have treated governmentality as an embodied experience (Thompson and Hirschman, 1995;Thompson, 2004;2005), what has not been sufficiently addressed is the interrelationship between the national cultural context and consumers' experiences of their bodies. While there are certain similarities of late modern experiences of one's own body due to the common heritage of Western thought, the particular discourses concerning bodies differ within particular cultures, not least because of a diverging historical development.…”

“…The production of meaning, however, is far from situational and takes place in relation to a generalized repertoire of meanings in society (Halkier et al, 2007, p. 382). In a similar vein, Berg et al (2005) analyzed the institutional conditions in four different settings in connection with consumers' trust in food safety. On the other end of the spectrum, the work of Lotte Holms and Helle Kildevang (1996) deals with everyday body-related considerations, yet does not take into account their embeddedness in macro-level structures.…”

Public Perceptions of Food-related Risks: A Cross-national Investigation of Individual and Contextual Influences

“…Previous research tends to focus on individual-level explanations, identifying several demographic and ideological predictors of risk concern, for example gender, education, perceived control, and institutional trust (Siegrist and Cvetkovich 2000;Slovic 1987). Less research investigates contextual influences on risk perception, but qualitative studies suggest that the structure of food provisioning systems, divisions of regulatory authority, and media coverage could contribute to national variations by shaping public expectations about risk management (Berg et al 2005;Kjaernes, Harvey, and Warde 2007). Much of this research examines only a handful of countries, however, raising questions about generalizability.…”