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Taking Karen Blixen’s short story ‘‘Babette’s Feast’’ (1950) as the starting point of reflection, this article examines the role of culinary pleasure in relation to social and environmental transformations. Combining literary criticism and food studies, the article explores the transformative potential of culinary art both as it is represented in the literary text and as it might affect people in real life. While Blixen in her story makes the case for culinary pleasure as an experience of abundance and extravagance, the article argues that we need to rethink pleasure according to sustainability criteria, including frugal practices. By presenting a method that engages in processes of change by both examining a literary food text and reflecting on a cooking workshop as a speculative exercise on how to create low-impact pleasure, this contribution seeks to introduce an integrated approach to literary criticism, food studies, and socioecological transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws on food studies, religious history, and research on Equiano's religious orientation to argue that Equiano's Interesting Narrative describes a creolized African and Methodist asceticism in relation to food and ritual practice. His introduction to the Moravian-Methodist love feast before his conversion resonates with his earlier textual recollections of commensality and feasting practices in his eastern Nigerian homeland. Equiano's early textual descriptions of feasting rituals suggest that he was attracted to Methodism because of his experiences through the Middle Passage and his memories of feasting practices, purification rites, and sacrifices and offerings from his childhood in Igboland. Equiano's experiences of sacrifice and his portrayals of hunger and hunger strikes as a form of resistance on the slave ships mark his choice of religious and ascetic orientation. His reclamation of the ocean as a free Black sailor, an Atlantic Creole, contributes to his interest to a temperate Methodist orientation and inner-worldly asceticism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues for the value of authenticity as an analytic. "Authentic possibilities" plays on a double meaning. In one sense, possibilities may be "authentic" in terms of what is true, real, original, grounded, or not fake. In another sense, authenticity as a concept may offer possibilities for analysts to notice how value is created. This article draws on long-term as well as disrupted ethnographic research in the Made in Italy arena across two sectors--slow figs and fast fashion--to theorize authentic possibilities. Fieldwork disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic opened conceptual space to propose a nonbinary approach to authenticities. In breaking from the authentic-inauthentic binary and taking inspiration from artisanal producers of figs, the article offers authenticities as an analytic to illuminate uncommon lessons. Fig producers straddle discipline and improvisation, sustaining and generating novel and nuanced forms of authenticity. The taste of authenticity may be unpredictable and even at odds with tradition. The article draws inspiration from theorists who signal authenticity's dynamic qualities whether through the slowness of food (Grasseni 2017), the realness of food (Weiss 2012), the emplacement of value (Cavanaugh and Shankar 2014), the power of reverse engineering terroir (Paxson 2010), and "stifling" aspects of authenticity (Gross 2020). The article is structured around four heterogenous instruments: place, fieldwork, discipline, and vulnerability. Takeaways propose possibilities and limits of authenticity for critical food studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a special issue concerning South African Food Studies, exploring diverse topics such as African feminist perspectives on food, queer indigeneity and environmental activism, and the intersection of food, agency, and hegemony. Additionally, it delves into the Black South African middle-class engagement with digital food cultures, narratives of food in communities like Somali restaurants, and the weaponization of food during the COVID-19 pandemic protests in South Africa.

Ferguson's Accounting for Taste reveals a gap in our understanding: How did French culinary discourse move beyond the bourgeois sphere in which it emerged in the nineteenth century? Picking up on her comparison of the Proustian synthesis of regional and national culinary culture in the Recherche to the project of national identity creation in the Third Republic's best-selling textbook, Le Tour de la France par deux enfants, this essay argues that the culinary model Ferguson describes was in fact widely disseminated through mass primary education under the Third Republic. Examining an overlooked corpus of primary school readers and textbooks, I show that food and cooking provided object lessons imparting practical and scientific knowledge to enlighten the masses, and textbooks canonized regional specialties as part of a new national geographic consciousness. At the same time, I underscore the limits of this consensual image of a national culinary culture, which collided with the class habits and horizons of the urban and rural masses attending l'école républicaine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the conceptual, cultural, and economic stakes involved in thinking literature and foodways as intertwined? Theorizing food in this way fosters an interdisciplinary, intersectional approach that pays careful attention to the cultural and material pathways through which food is produced, consumed, symbolized, and invested with meaning. Scrutinizing the ideological and material underpinnings of culinary practices allows us to better appreciate food's figurative richness and contribution to the making, unmaking, and remaking of French culture and socio-political relations. The introduction to this Special Issue reviews recent efforts in the field of Food Studies to advance such an analysis and situates the primary lines of inquiry taken up in this volume in relation to the critical frameworks that inform them. What the articles gathered here demonstrate is that acts of eating, as well as the depiction of food in art and history, both shape and are shaped by racialized and gendered power dynamics, affective investments and attachments, and economic inequities. Xenophilia and xenophobia, exoticism and repulsion are intimately connected; both modalities abstract and flatten the foodstuffs and creative capacities of the non-European. A key question that emerges in this issue is, then: How might we build better modes of conviviality, of eating together and living together well? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes two works by Maryse Condé, Victoire: les saveurs et les mots (2006) and Mets et merveilles (2015), spotlighting the figure of the female cook. It proposes a rereading of Victoire, the fictionalized biography of Condé's grandmother, in light of the more recent autobiographical work Mets et merveilles in which Condé refers to her penchant for cooking as a crime of 'lèse-majesté' against her profession as a writer. Victoire stands out in Condé's fiction for its emphasis on cooking and food. In Mets et merveilles Condé uses the theme of cooking as a tactic to encourage readers to return to Victoire in order to cement her legacy as an author, enabled by her established practice of rusing with her readers and supported by the recent growth of academic food studies as a scholarly discipline. Rereading Victoire in light of Mets et merveilles presents Maryse Condé as a writer-cook anchored in Guadeloupe, post-nomadic, proud of her cooking but still proudly intellectual, creating a space for Caribbean food writing and for her unique culinary mixtures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This pedagogical piece reports on the successes and challenges of developing and teaching an undergraduate "critical food literacy„ course in a land-grant university's college of agriculture. The United States agricultural industry is built upon a foundation of stolen land and stolen labor, and depends to this day on the labor of marginalized populations. Despite these hard truths about who grows our food, colleges of agriculture remain overwhelmingly white demographically, culturally, and epistemologically. Though scholars have called for greater incorporation of social justice themes in college-level agriculture courses, there is little research to date on the effectiveness of various suggested teaching methods. To address this gap and contribute to the necessary work of diversifying curricula across colleges of agriculture, we conducted a qualitative assessment of the course "Seeds of equity: Exploring race, class, and gender in our food system„ while simultaneously developing and teaching it. We use our personal experiences and research findings to argue that critical food literacy is an effective framework for teaching students at a large, Midwestern land-grant university about race, class, and gender in the food system. We also offer concrete suggestions of course materials, assignments, and teaching methods that can be utilized in myriad food studies and agricultural education classroom contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dominant analytical frameworks in critical food studies literature often ignore or underplay the role of the senses for chefs and eaters. This article considers one Peruvian American chef’s efforts to translate Peru’s gastronomic boom and ‘‘Peruvian flavor profiles’’ for New York eaters. Through an emphasis on flavor, this article shows the kinds of binds such dominant frameworks create around chefs, particularly for those who labor under culinary labels such as non-European cooking, Latino food, or ethnic cuisine. Flavor offers more than the binary of virtuous hero or colonialist villain, and instead helps conceptualize taste and power as acts of digestion, highlighting the sensory web created through cooking and eating in gastronationalism. A focus on flavor also points us to the way in which the category itself has become a resource, an embodied sensation that is part and parcel of our social lives, the result of digesting creatures and worlds around us, shaping our selves, our bodies and our national imaginaries in the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Notions of creativity are increasingly central to educational scholarship and policies, but few studies attend to the intersection between Health and Physical Education (H/PE) and creativity. In this paper we explore the literature on creativity in education and identify how creativity is represented across a broad spectrum of enquiry yet limited in relation to specifically H/PE. Writing from an Australian context, we examine how the key ideas and propositions from the Australian Curriculum for Health and Physical Education and the Critical and Creative Thinking capability raise important questions regarding the social emergence of educative creative purpose and potential in H/PE. We outline the utility of a 'creative ecologies' conceptual framework to consider contemporary practices in H/PE, and apply this to two purposively selected resources; to showcase their contextual eminence for creative learning in H/PE pedagogy and practice. The first resource, Phenomenom!, was funded by Horticultural Innovation Australia to develop food literacy and is linked to cross-curriculum learning outcomes. The second resource, Fitter. Faster. Better, is a St Martin's Youth drama-arts performance where students were prompted to design and perform a fitness programme for adults. Utilising the creative ecologies framework we illustrate the complexity of interconnected creative processes in H/PE as a series of networked elements and cultural flows (policies, practices, products, process, material environments, and partnerships). This framework is then used to identify how the two educational resources exemplify and open up a socially creative practice in both H/PE and everyday life. Our theoretical developments offer new ways to identify, design and enact quality creative and contemporary socio-cultural H/PE curriculum within a broader creative ecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ivan Blatný’s later poetry, much of it written at various hospitals and retirement homes in England, offers unique challenges and rewards in its apparent disorder. Given the sheer quantity of his writings, how should we make sense of them? How do we group poems and see the shape of, if not give shape to, his final collection, Bixley Remedial School? These questions are integral to the study of Blatný’s verse, not only regarding textological matters but interpretive ones as well. In working to bring some unity to Blatný’s poetry, the present article examines how he employs food imagery throughout Bixley Remedial School as a metapoetic metaphor for his quest to generate meaningful art even in a mundane reality. I first consider Blatný’s art within the context of food studies and what this field may say about a post-surrealist’s food poems. A series of close readings of exemplary texts, in which the poet frequently pairs food items with descriptions of his compositional methods, then clarifies how these patterns come to be and what they signify. The food imagery constellation is of special import, not only in its relative frequency, but also in underscoring the mundane qualities of Blatný’s reality and, in turn, how they nevertheless inspire the poet to produce such revolutionary texts. Foods as commonplace as lard and bacon become emblematic of the existential and creative difficulties he faces; they furthermore become entwined with other themes including sex and memory. This article, in other words, addresses how these poems represent their very creation and how they fulfill a need that is both physical and imaginative for the writer-in-exile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the history and politics of American-funded food demonstration buses ("kitchen cars") in postwar Japan. Their express mission was to transform the Japanese national diet. I make two primary arguments. First, at least in the short to medium term, the kitchen cars were a win-win for both the United States and Japan. On the one hand, Japan benefited because the kitchen cars taught Japanese women how to cook cheap, nutritious, mostly easy dishes to improve the health of their families and the nation. On the other hand, these menus were planned specifically to increase consumption of American agricultural products, especially wheat, soy, and corn. For US agricultural and political interests, in addition to supporting the economic recovery and political stability of a Cold War ally, the kitchen cars – along with the school lunch program – were instrumental in teaching Japan to accept and consume American produce. My second argument concerns the reasons for the kitchen cars' success. I identify the following two factors: staffing by mostly female professional nutritionists, who combined authority with approachability for the kitchen cars' main audiences of middle-aged, married women; and the kitchen cars' mobility, which allowed them to reach even remote villages and hamlets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes out method for "scaffolding expertise" that we used in our team-taught critical food studies course. We believe this technique allows students to not only gain knowledge about a particular food, but also models scholarly production of expertise on a small scale. It gives students an idea of what it means to be "experts" helping them to develop a more critical eye toward those who claim that title in other contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses food schools in Copenhagen. Organized differently from the majority of Copenhagen schools, twelve food schools have chefs on site and involve pupils in preparing, cooking, and serving the daily meals. Four food schools formed the empirical basis of a qualitative study conducted in 2016, which involved interviewing pupils, food school coordinators, management, and chefs. The empirical data show that food schools entail differing understandings of a common set of visions introduced by the municipality about food education including topics such as taste, teaching and dining atmosphere. The variety of understandings and practices problematize the notion of "best practice" as a way for a municipality to unify the schools and formulate advice for new food schools. Instead, the article emphasizes the need to address the complexity and to open for a broader view on how to work with situated everyday practices also addressing e.g. materiality and bodily aspects. Only by accepting the variety of expressions, the visions of food education can be addressed and worked with in a non-essentialist manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the history of jumbles, a type of cookies, through the duration of American history from the colonial period through today. The evolution of jumbles illustrates the ways that recipes have been continually adapted and put to a variety of political and social uses. In particular, this essay seeks to further debates in food studies over the nature of authenticity by exploring the constant recreation of a single recipe (the jumble) alongside the cultural factors that shaped a particular iteration of the cookie at a given moment in time (including but not limited to the American Revolution, the partisan political battles in the early 1800 s, post-Civil War anxieties over heritage and identity, or periods of rapid social change brought about by industrialization in the late 19th and early 20th century). Contextualizing recipes in a particular historical moment suggests that there is no true "historical authenticity" when it comes to cookery. Modern cooks who engage in historical cookery are instead creating dishes that are authentic to their own moment in time, not some essentialized version of the dish rooted in a mythic past. Nor, as the study of jumbles suggests, is this a new process. Exploring the relationship between social, economic, and political trends at key moments in the history of the jumble demonstrates that Americans have long engaged in the process of recreating nostalgic dishes in search of historical authenticity that says more about the taste preferences, political agendas, and social geographies of those cooks than those to whom they pay homage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, there has been an intensification of calls for comprehensive food education curriculum in schools. Despite this, there is limited international comparative data on the provision of food education. This study uses a comparative case study approach to analyse second-level food education curriculum policy across seven countries. It explores curriculum policy regarding the status of food education, nomenclature and the pedagogical and philosophical approaches. In six of the seven countries, Home Economics is identified as the school subject which teaches practical food education. Coherence in the discourse and pedagogical approaches is evident; however, disparity between countries exists as to whether the subject is optional or mandatory. The authors conclude that food education should form part of the curriculum, but rather than a piecemeal approach, they recommend it be taught, by specialist teachers, in an integrated, sequential and developmentally appropriate manner through an established subject such as Home Economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, the popularity of food scholarship has led to an expansion of online food studies courses and programs. This push for online course offerings has been escalated due to the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. To date, much of the field has focused on examining the global concentration and integration of corporate food systems, often described as a "food from nowhere" regime. In contrast, the study of civil society organizations and social movements working toward more equitable and sustainable food systems points to the desire to (re)build a "food from somewhere" regime. How do these ideas of de-spatialization and re-spatialization apply to teaching online food studies courses? In this reflective essay, five scholars and postsecondary instructors share experiences with online teaching about food systems. Our collective reflection reveals a number of benefits for postsecondary institutions, instructors, students, and pedagogical approaches. We also share key concerns, such as engaging students and encouraging participation, constraints for developing personal connections and the additional time and energy required to prepare and deliver courses. Beyond these opportunities and tensions, we point to the need for instructors to consider the implications of teaching about "food from somewhere" from nowhere. We offer these reflections to begin a much-needed conversation about the current state and the future of online food studies education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introductory article argues for making food central to a praxis of cultural studies in the transhispanic world and the importance of inserting Hispanist voices into the arena of food studies scholarship more broadly. Articles in this Special Issue illustrate that foodways of the transhispanic world are heterogeneous and conflicted. Yet, food discourses allow us to study how people think with food, using it to mark identities, to establish power relationships and to dispute them. Articles in this collection demonstrate how transnational forces condition the food cultures and discourses of this context. They also highlight culinary nationalism and the inextricable links communities and nation-states construct and sustain between food and national cuisines from within and outside of nation-states or state-less nations. Both critical frameworks, the transnational—which engages imperial expansion, neocolonialism, globalization and migration—, and the national—in which foodways change in the context of intercultural encounters, are essential to understanding food cultures and their discursive and textual forms in this context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a reflection on two interrelated topics: the modification of eating habits in Spain, a key aspect of everyday life, through the presence of a substantial migration movement that started in the 1990s, and the intervention of migrant workers into the food economy, particularly in rural areas with heavy agriculture development such as seen in Lleida and its surrounding towns. It will provide a reading of two recent texts (a film and a book) that engage with issues of immigration and food. Both El próximo Oriente (2006) directed by Fernando Colomo, and La pell de la frontera (2014) authored by Francesc Serés offer evidence about contemporary Spain's transformation through food. In these texts food is a powerful weapon of social and physical control, and encapsulates some of the many adjustments that have occurred in Spanish society. The kitchen, at home or in a restaurant, as a private or as a public space, becomes a setting to display the fine line between the familiar and the uncanny, between a domestic (safe) and a hostile environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay proposes an analytical framework for studying the emergent cultural formation around eating and drinking that we call Global Brooklyn. It is a recurring, vaguely codified set of material objects, environments, practices, and discourses which materialize in cities throughout the world in coffee places, restaurants, and food halls. Taking an ideal type approach, we describe: (1) the designed materialities of rugged postindustrial settings; (2) a shift in taste judgements; (3) the role of digital and visual communication in creating and sharing experiences and values; (4) a knowledge-intensive aspect of practices and strategies of actors; and (5) appeals to an ethos of authenticity and craft that celebrates manual labor. The essay aims at bridging food studies with food design through a closer engagement with material culture in objects and spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including study on species like whales, orangutans, and penguins; industrialized meat production and its impacts on the environment; and food education and learning.

Robert McCarrison's Nutritional Research Laboratories in Coonoor, Tamil Nadu, had by 1928 become the centre for nutritional research in India. The question that this article seeks to address is how did McCarrison manage to secure the status of his institute and reputation in thefield? I argue that his reputation was largely established through a set of experiments heperformed between theyears 1925-27, in which hefed different groups of rats diets that supposedly corresponded to the different "races" of India and to working-class Britons. This article argues that these experiments were crucial in attracting funding and attention from the colonial state principally because they tapped into contemporary British anxieties about the deleterious effects of modernisation on the lower classes, as well as racial theories pertaining to the martial races that were in vogue in colonial India in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They also aligned with the colonial state's desire to increase male labouring power and the physical prowess ofits military recruits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An extensive literature review was performed to provide a background for appreciating the potential relationship between eating pattern regularity and measures of body composition within the context of chrononutrition. Existing evidence on contemporary eating behaviors supports the high prevalence of irregular and individualized eating patterns that vary dramatically in terms of daily frequency, timing, and energy content. Data from temporal dietary analyses within chrononutrition studies suggest that inconsistencies in nutrient intake and timing disrupt circadianassociated human biological rhythms with consequences for metabolic health and the regulation of body weight. Multiple physical, environmental, and possibly genetic factors direct individual eating patterns, highlighting the growing body of research and interest in personalized therapies among nutrition and healthcare professionals. Identifying qualitative and quantitative measures to characterize and classify individual eating pattern types may support efforts to develop and deliver effectivepersonal dietary recommendations. This review provides substantiationforfurther exploration and novel approaches in support of optimal health and body weight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces its readers to an interdisciplinary approach in teaching and learning about cultures of Southwestern Asia and North Africa at the American University in Dubai. Selected as one of the United Arab Emirates Innovation Week's officially registered activities in 2015, this activity combines anthropology of food, sciences of religions, and irenology and is a major application of the peace education pedagogy I have been developing since 2004. The article also presents the preliminary results of qualitative research on the local food cultures' experiences of more than 500 students from different backgrounds who are enrolled in diverse Middle Eastern studies courses. In my classrooms, students were exposed to--and they told--stories of families, migrations, assimilation, resistance, hybridity, war, and peace and dealt with issues ranging from cultural appropriation to food security andfood as an identity marker and the religious significance and representation of food. Class activities such as live food production (e.g., "Hummus Laboratory"), food storytelling sessions, andfood diplomacy activities contributed to their learning of local cultures and buildingpeace. Students reported having acquired visceral experiences of foreignness andfamiliarization, global identity formation, and intercultural dialogue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on a two-part argument. First, food studies should be more engaged in social theory. It is argued that a greater engagement with theoretical debates and developments, as well as clearer theoretical conflicts in the field, would increase both our empirical knowledge of food issues and the understanding of general social-theoretical problems. This will not reduce food to a simple means of "studying something else," but, on the contrary, will highlight the exceptionality of food issues. Second, such a commitment is exemplified in a particular theoretical direction. It is contended that food studies has been skewed toward research on the communicative aspects of food and eating (identity, cultural symbolism, social movement action, etc.), while increased engagements with contemporary theories of practice would provide the field with a broader diversity where the inconspicuous, ordinary, unreflective, mundane, and (more or less) unnoticed are given as much attention as the conspicuous, special, reflexive, extraordinary, and symbolically loaded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Restaurant workers, whether aware of this or not, may be responsible for spreading Foodborne Diseases (FBD) to consumers. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how the knowledge of the risk of FBD can become a gateway to risk perception and cognitive illusions, and how the habitus acts in guiding work practices. The research uses a mixed-methods design with qualitative approach. A study was conducted in six food services during 42 days, which had participatory observation as central method. A Risk Perception Scale and a Locus of Control Questionnaire were applied, helping to obtain data relative to cognitive illusions. It was identified that in the absence of food safety knowledge, risk was not identified by the workers and the action was conditioned by the habitus or by the constructions of common sense, while in the presence of knowledge, although shallow, risk was perceived and cognitive illusions emerged. A relationship between the many years of work, inefficient training and the protection granted by objects in the presence of cognitive illusions is discussed. Workers who do not possess scientific knowledge need to go through consistent training that, beyond biological and hygiene-related content, encompass concepts interwoven with risk perception and the habitus. Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image Highlights • Mixed-methods design was used to comprehend risk perception and cognitive illusions. • Superficial knowledge of food safety can be a gateway to cognitive illusions. • Optimistic bias, illusion of control and external locus of control were identified. • Restaurant workers' practices were guided by the habitus and common sense. • Social incorporation allows correct and incorrect apprehension of sanitary knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract An international survey among consumers in developing countries from Asia and Africa on food safety knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) was carried out using structured questionnaires. Data were collected from 453 consumers comprising 265 from Africa and 188 from Asia. Significant difference (p < 0.05) on food safety knowledge attitude and practice between consumers from Africa and Asia was observed. In Africa, consumers in Cameroon had the least food safety knowledge (73.15 ± 16.43) compared to Ghana (78.19 ± 15.84) and Nigeria (88.16 ± 8.88). Similarly, consumers in Iran had the least food safety knowledge (73.33 ± 19.84) in Asia compared to Malaysia (88.36 ± 11.64) and Pakistan (89.42 ± 9.89). Among the respondents, 89% were aware of food poisoning while 304 (67.1%) consume food kept for long at room temperature. There was significant difference (p < 0.05) in food safety knowledge, attitudes and practices of consumers between Africa and Asia. Overall, respondents from Asia have better food safety knowledge than respondents from Africa. Graphical abstract Food safety model describing relationship between food safety knowledge, attitude and practices among consumers (Lim et al. 2016). Unlabelled Image Highlights • Food safety knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) among consumers in developing countries from Asia and Africa was investigated. • There was significant difference (p < 0.05) on food safety knowledge attitude and practice between consumers from Africa and Asia. • In Africa, consumers in Cameroon had the least food safety knowledge and Iran in Asia. • Consumers from Asia had better food safety knowledge than consumers from Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engaging undergraduate students in research has become increasingly important due to its potential benefits (for example, increased intention to pursue postgraduate study and enhanced understanding of theoretical knowledge). This study investigated whether a comprehensive food science research project that was incorporated into the laboratory component of an Experimental Study of Foods course would enhance student knowledge, confidence, and interest in research. A total of 84 students participated in two sections of the laboratory (2016, n = 39; 2017, n = 45). Scores for pre and posttests and questionnaires were used to determine if the differences in knowledge scores and ratings for confidence in doing research were significant. Knowledge scores indicated that participants were knowledgeable about research at baseline (2016, 7.31 ± 1.15; 2017, 6.89 ± 0.1.21; maximum of 10 points). Results of the t‐tests showed that the change in knowledge scores before and after the project was not statistically significant; however, the level of confidence in performing various research skills (for example, identify research questions, formulate hypotheses, design an experiment) significantly increased upon project completion. In general, students demonstrated favorable attitudes toward the research project at the end of this project. Qualitative responses were organized into three themes that related to the "input" (elements that made the project successful), "process" (how the project was conducted), and "outcomes" (reported gains or benefits) of the project. Recommendations were made in terms of mentorship, research guidelines and topics, and group culture to improve future projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay explores how teaching and studying the U.S. Southern region's foodways and culture help students at the University of Mississippi make connections with acts of sustenance and social processes and problems. Topics discussed are pedagogical approach to teaching Southern foodways and its outcome, value of Southern foodways scholarship, and efforts of the Southern Foodways Alliance (SFA) in documenting and studying the diverse food cultures of the South.

Objectives: to gain a better understanding about consumers in order to be able to inform them, improve their protection and promote their responsibility, emphasizing the role of consumer organizations in improving the food literacy of the Spanish population.Methods: more than 2,000 families from all the Autonomous Regions of Spain participated in the "Survey on consumer habits 2016", which aimed to better understand the profile of the new Spanish consumer and encourage responsible consumption. We analysed consumer habits, factors that influence purchase and level of information of consumers.Results: some 65% of consumers choose supermarkets as their usual place of purchase; the purchase of fresh products is imposed on the rest. The data reflect dietary habits of citizens are less healthy than recommended and little knowledge about food allergen-free, ecological or transgenic foods. About 75% acknowledge that the economic situation forced them to change partially consumption and food habits. When selecting a product, people value the most quality and price, factors that together with the proximity of the point-of-purchase influence the choice of place of purchase. 71% of consumers say they look for information about products before buying them and find it on labels. They value information on expiration date, ingredients, price, place of origin and nutritional information. Only 71% difference between expiration date and preferential consumption.Conclusions: for a consumer association, nutrition education should not only contemplate the dissemination of information about food and nutrients, but also provide tools to know what to do and how to act to improve nutrition, creating environments that provide good food options and capabilities that allow to individuals, institutions and companies to commit to adopting healthier practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues for, and reflects on, the introduction of social and mobile media into food studies pedagogies. Specifically, the paper describes the complications resulting from a pedagogical experiment addressing the rise and effects of "food porn" or "foodtography" alongside the tensions inherent in social network sites and higher education. Ultimately, such a review leads to the introduction of Georg Simmel and his use of boundaries as a lens through which to view the classroom discomfort expressed in food-related course projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A sample of 215 undergraduate students enrolled in two classes—an introductory food class and a textile class—at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, participated in a research study to examine food knowledge. All students participating in the study completed a questionnaire that addressed their attitudes about cooking. Analysis of data found no significant difference between students enrolled in an introductory foods class and those enrolled in the textile class. Food is a valuable tool for teaching nutrition information to clientele. For students planning to enter the dietetic field, understanding food is essential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores whether or not there is an identifiably Vietnamese national cuisine, one in which the ingredients, recipes, and/or dishes socially, culturally, and politically unite Vietnamese people. It contends that Vietnam, with its long history of foreign invaders, its own appropriation of the middle and southern regions, and its varied regional geographies, provides a critical example for Food Studies of the need to interrogate the idea of a national cuisine and to differentiate it from regional and local cuisines. The paper examines how cookbook authors and cooking schools have more generally sought to represent Vietnamese dishes as national, but that there is a strong argument against the claim of a Vietnamese national cuisine. We advocate a Food Studies methodology that creates an effective pedagogy that explores whether or not national populations are unified as single gastro-states or atomized by a plurality of regional cuisines. Through experiential assignments and student work we illustrate how Food Studies presents the pedagogical opportunity for students to study and learn at the intersection of national politics and the everyday lives of people, providing a framework for understanding connections of labor, gender, class, and, essentially, taste, among many other values. In the case of Vietnamese food, the critical details of ingredients, preparation, and consumption both reveal and conceal truths about the Vietnamese people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nutritional care contributes to the individual being an agent of his food choices, aware of the benefits of healthy eating. It should be guided by documents such as the Marco de Referência de Educação Alimentar e Nutricional para Políticas Públicas [Food and Nutrition Education Framework for Public Policies]. This article aims to reflect on nutritional care, discussing relevant concepts such as food and nutrition education, the determinants of dietary pattern, counseling, and how the Framework can contribute with this process. The main interface points between this document and nutritional care are the need to understand the interactions and meanings that determine feeding behavior, and care should not focus only on biological aspects of nutrition. Emphasis is placed on the professional's proper posture as an educator, which favors the opening of dialogue and contributes to empowerment, promotion of self-care and generation of autonomy concerning eating behavior. Considering the complexity of food choices, instruments that collaborate with counseling and food and nutrition education can significantly contribute to democratic access to healthy food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Food and nutrition surveillance is an essential action within the Unified Health System, because health policies can be created while taking into account the nutrition diagnosis of the population. Objectives: To discuss limits and possibilities of the Food and Nutrition Surveillance System based on reports from health professionalswho work in Primary Health Care. Methodology: This is an exploratory and descriptive study in the municipality of Montes Claros, MG, with interviews conducted with health professionals. Results and Discussion: It was found that the health professionals recognize the importance of SISVAN, but its functioning is hampered by infrastructure conditions (difficulty in computerization and connection), human resources (workload of the nursing team and professionals specialized in the field) and logistics (information system handling and lack of user adherence). Conclusion: The operational problems are reflected in the functioning of SISVAN; therefore the management system has to invest in strategies in order to expand and qualify food and nutrition surveillance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To discuss the role of school's cooks within the Brazilian National School Feeding Program, as well as its possibilities and challenges in the actions of Food and Nutrition Education. Methods: Qualitative research, using the techniques of participant observation and Choice Work Dialogue. The studied group consisted of 23 school's cooks from a city in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro state. Results and Discussion: The educational potential of school's cooks is based on the relationships of affection they develop with students and on the qualifications they perform in order to develop new skills. However, the lack of time and of integration with the school staff are challenges for the fulfillment of the educational function of these professionals. Conclusion: The educational function of school's cooks is permeated by possibilities and challenges; hence, it is interesting to value its potential aspects for Food and Nutrition Education and to contribute to overcome its challenges. Thus, it will be possible to enjoy even more the educational potential of this program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The National School Feeding Program, one of the oldest among Brazilian public policies for food supplementation, has, among its goals, keeping children fed in school and promoting food and nutrition education. The students' adhesion to school feeding, however, does not meet the goals of the Program. Objective: This study aimed to assess whether specific food education activities in public schools could improve food knowledge and promote the acceptance of meals planned by the National School Feeding Program. Methods: Interventional study in which three schools with classes of grades 3rd through 5th of elementary school were selected, due to their low performance in games, to have their knowledge about healthy eating and low acceptance of school feeding assessed through the leftovers/ingestion index and through the hedonic scale, totaling 243 students of ages 8 to 13. Data regarding anthropometric measurements, adherence to and acceptance of school feeding were obtained. Educational practices included cooking workshops and classroom activities. Results: Nutritional assessment showed obesity in 10% of the students, most of whom consumed school meals, even though they purchased unhealthy foods to eat during mealtime in school. The performance in the games, after the intervention, showed significant improvement through the results obtained with the leftovers/ingestion and the hedonic scale. Conclusion: Educational activities promoted an improvement in the students' knowledge about healthy eating and their acceptance of school meals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As anti-globalization and anti-science rhetoric become central to right-wing agendas, the study of food allows social scientists and humanities-oriented scholars to rethink their posture towards both. After "question everything" becomes a fact-free, alt-right, call to arms, we are forced to learn new lessons in how radical doubt could be a socially dubious thing. We can no longer return to the metaphysical question of truth with certainty. Nevertheless, pure criticism feels inadequate at this precarious moment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study builds on a fieldwork in a Danish school class, where pupils were observed while preparing and eating school meals. It shows that the children encounter conflicting approaches to food education depending on the context. While eating, an authoritarian approach to food education dominates and food is ascribed instrumental value. While preparing the school meal, a democratic approach dominates and food is ascribed intrinsic value. The aim is to show how these conflicting approaches reflect not only different social and cultural expectations to eating and preparing meals, respectively, but also a conflict between food educational ideals and actual school meal practices. To illustrate this an analytic model is introduced, the Integrated Food Pedagogy Model, and the ways in which this model could help promote better food education among schoolchildren are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]