Research project
Transparency: Understanding public views and priorities (June 2017)
Research exploring what the public think being transparent about food means, what their priorities are in terms of greater transparency, how they think transparency should be enacted and who they see as being responsible for being transparent.
The research focused on seven food issues within transparency:
- production methods
- cost of food
- authenticity
- animal welfare
- composition of food and how this is labelled
- food safety
- regulation
A series of reconvened deliberative Citizens’ Forums were run with 61 members of the general public.
Of the seven food issues considered, participants felt those connected to public health and food safety should be prioritised. Issues such as authenticity, composition of food and how it is labelled and food safety were seen as 'need to know' issues. Production methods, cost of food, and regulation were seen as 'nice to know' issues, to the extent that they did not link explicitly to food safety. Many participants felt conflicted about information related to animal welfare.