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 was derived from a natural system. With the rise of industrialisation, new values in the food industry arose. Issues like return on investment, efficiency, productivity and government controlled regulations became new and dominant 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 - are being replaced by sedentary work with consequent impact on lifestyle and nutritional demands.
High labour productivity, more leisure time and economic prosperity are today's realities, but this has been accompanied by 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 hygienic high-tech production methods in farming. In this way food production and processing is becoming more and more subject to high technology industrialised processes.
These developments in industrial food production are increasingly questioned by the public and the scientific community. While claiming that novel foods are good for consumers health, 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 have unknown effects on the health of the consumers. The same applies to genetically modified organisms and to gene-oriented biotechnology with their unpredictable long-term effects on the environment and on the health of human beings and animals. While industrial researchers are studying the effect of their novel products another research field must not be neglected. This concerns the question of the effect of authentic and organic food on public health.
A rapidly growing group of consumers in our society now prefers to buy organically grown and processed products. They would welcome scientific data to justify their often intuitive feeling that organically grown food is more healthy. Several consumers in this group prefer organic food because of environmental concerns and question industrialised agriculture for its violation of natural cycles. In line with this, scientists as well as producers and processors of organic food, are asking questions like:
Can
consumption of organically produced food improve our health?
Do
organic farming methods have an important effect on the nutritional quality
of food?
Do
organic or biodynamic food products have distinct or special quality characteristics?
Does
organic food processing influence the risk of allergic reactions?
What
do we consider authentic and organic food processing?
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.
World-wide, research projects – mostly on a small scale – to respond to consumers questions, are being implemented and the first results are providing indicative evidence that suggests nutritional differences between organic and non-organic food. A comprehensive literature review on comparative studies between organic and non-organic produce was published in 2001 in the British Soil Association report entitled: Organic Farming, Food Quality and Human Health. Findings on positive health qualities of organic food have been endorsed by scientists and experts in the field of medicine, nutrition and organic agriculture but at the same time the report is a strong plead for further scientific research in this area. Reviews in Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, the Netherlands and France have reported similar observations. In the nineties, medical practitioners, nutritionists and agricultural researchers linked to the Louis Bolk Instituut from the Netherlands sought international co-operation on the issue of organic food quality and health. They were supported by the Dutch Triodos Bank and trading company Eosta. The same need for co-operation was met in the University of Kassel, with the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) in Switzerland and with the Biodynamic Research Association (BRAD) in Denmark, resulting in the founding of an international research association in January 2003. The association invites new members and supporters active in the research fields of food industry, medicine, consumers and the health sector, to become members to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of on-going and new research in the field of organic food quality and health.
Background