Journal
PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING OF SCIENCE
Volume 20, Issue 2, Pages 179-194Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
DOI: 10.1177/0963662509336714
Keywords
boundary objects; consumers; food assurance and labeling; functional food; organic food
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This paper considers how consumers make sense of food labeling, drawing on a qualitative, empirical study in England. I look in detail at two examples of labeling: 1) food certified as produced by organic methods and 2) functional food claimed to be beneficial for human health, especially probiotic and cholesterol-lowering products. I use the concept of boundary objects to demonstrate how such labels are intended to work between the worlds of food producers and food consumers and to show how information is not merely transferred as a knowledge fix to consumer ignorance. Rather, consumers drew on a binary of raw and processed food and familiarity with marketing in today's consumer culture to make sense of such labeling.
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