ABOUT FQH
Background
Authentic or novel processed food: Which is more healthy?
Organically or conventionally grown apples: Which taste better?
For centuries, the production of food has been the responsibility of the farmer. Nutritional value and the safety of the products were not a public concern as long as produce derived from a natural system. With the rise of industrialisation, issues like return on investment, efficiency, productivity and government regulations became aspects of food production and processing. In an increasingly industrialised environment consumers have developed different and at times extreme demands. The physically demanding long working weeks of the past - though still common in many rural areas - make way for office work with consequences for lifestyle and nutritional demands.
High labour productivity, more leisure time and economic prosperity are today’s realities, but this often goes along with stress, new illnesses and allergies. One response to these modern health problems are novel and functional foods, artificially or naturally enriched, new food supplements as well as ‘clean’, high-tech production methods in farming. In this way, food production and processing becomes more and more subject to highly industrialised, technological processes. These developments in food production are increasingly questioned by the public and the scientific community. Science claims that novel foods are good for the consumers’ health. But the fundamental understanding of the link between the quality of food and human health is still lacking. Hence, the scientific justification for many ‘healthy’ technical innovations in food processing is lacking.
Recently introduced functional foods may have as yet unknown beneficial or harmful effects on the health of the consumers. The same applies to genetically modified organisms and to gene-oriented biotechnology with their unknown long-term effects on the environment and on the health of human beings and animals. While industrial researchers study the effect of their novel products, another research field should not be ignored at the same time: The question of the effect of authentic and organic food on public health and environment.
A rapidly growing group of consumers prefers to buy organically grown and organically processed food products. They would welcome scientific data to justify their – often intuitive – feeling that organically grown food is healthier. Several consumers in this group prefer organic food for environmental reasons and question industrialised agriculture for its violation of natural cycles. For others the expectation that organic food is healthier, because of lack of undesired residues and content of more health promoting ingredients, constitutes the reason to buy organic. Others, among whom many professional cooks, prefer organic produce for its taste. In line with this, scientists as well as producers and processors of organic food, ask questions like:
Can consumption of organically produced food improve our health?
How do organic farming methods affect the nutritional quality of food?
Do organic or biodynamic food products have distinct quality characteristics?
Does organic food processing influence the risk of allergic reactions?
What do we consider authentic and organic food processing? Is organic food tastier?
Does production and consumption of organically produced food enhance our quality of life in a broader sense?
Need for Research Cooperation
In FQH research projects the international participation of scientists and stakeholders is organized at several places and moments in time.
Seen in a worldwide perspective, research projects – on an increasing scale – to answer consumers’ questions, are implemented and first results provide indicative evidence for nutritional differences between organic and non-organic food. More literature reviews on comparative studies between organic and non-organic produce appeared in recent years in Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and France. Findings on favourable health-related quality aspects of organic food become endorsed by scientists and experts in the field of medicine, nutrition and organic agriculture, but at the same time the reports unanimously give a strong plea for further scientific research in this area.
Set off in 2003
At the end of the 1990s, medical practitioners, nutritionists and agricultural researchers linked to the Louis Bolk Instituut in the Netherlands sought international co-operation on the issue of organic food quality and health. They were supported by the Dutch Triodos Bank and the trade company Eosta. The same need for co-operation was felt at the University of Kassel, the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) in Switzerland and the Biodynamic Research Association (BRAD) in Denmark, resulting in the founding of the International Research Association (FQH) in January 2003.
Background