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Change and stability in nordic eating habits
163
ABSTRACTS
III. Modern
and Traditional
Change and Stability
Eating in the Nordic
Countries
in Nordic Eating Habits. KAJ ILMONEN.
Institute for Economic Research, Htimeentie 8 A, SF-00530
Labour Helsinki, Finland.
Until the 196Os,tradition was the leading principle in Nordic food choices. Since then it has lost its role and two new trends have emerged in food demand, namely the increasing use of convenience and ethnic (or international) foods. Structural changes, such as the transition of women into wage earning and the increase of singles among adult population, explain fairly well the growing interest in convenience foods. The internalization of Scandinavian food habits, however, does not have a simple explanation. It can be understood only by paying attention both to saturation with convenience and traditional foods and to the complex interplay between tourism and fashion. The new trends of the Nordic table have not advanced straightforwardly. Both convenience and ethnic foods have faced resistance because of their strangeness. This means that in order to meet demand they must first be made culturally familiar. Consequently, ethnic foods are “domesticated” by reducing spices and adding familiar ingredients. Therefore, one can say that changes in the Nordic eating habits represent cautious “reformism” (as the countries do politically as well). The case of convenience foods is different from that of ethnic foods because the former are semi-prepared meals that have undergone transition from nature to culture. In this metamorphosis, familiar has become alien. In order to win consumers’ acceptance, the food must be made culturally familiar again. This has not been easy, because convenience foods have been regarded as the negative opposite of organically grown foods. Convenience foods are considered dubious and artificial, whereas the organically grown foods are held to be natural and pure. In Food We Trust? Vitally Necessary Confidence-and Unfamiliar Ways of Forming Public Opinion. ANN-MAR1 SELLERBERG. Department of Sociologv, University of Lund, Box 114,2-22100 Lund, Sweden. Distrust of or confidence in life-sustaining nourishment is obviously a matter of vita1 importance. Yet the ways in which we arrive at either of these crucial attitudes are essentially unknown. Three questions, all with a bearing on people’s confidence in food, were addressed to a representative sample of the Swedish population. As it turned out, people whose education and income showed differences, men and women, and persons in different age-groups came up with very similar answers. Demographic factors did not seem to matter. “Highly charged” food examples have a special way of influencing public opinion. Such examples of distrust can be described in terms of a confrontation of opposites; one characteristic reinforces awareness of the opposite characteristic. Various characteristics of food become distinctive symbols of what is natural+r unnatural and synthetic. Attempts are made by authorities to ensure the generation of people’s trust by legislative means. Formal value limits, etc., are held up officially as grounds for confidence. However, distrust can not be delimited by official regulations; trust is impossible to produce according to plan. Indeed, when such attempts are made, they may result in the opposite effect: the signals which are supposed to ensure confidence speak a symbolic language of a very different nature, and distrust is engendered instead. A Model for Adaptation to a New Food Pattern: the Case of Immigrants. TAHIRE KOCKTURK-RUNEFORS. State Food Administration, Box 622, S-75726, Uppsala, Sweden. In meal preparation, certain foods are considered more important or more “real” and “basic” than others. Basic foods which consist of staple and its complements (the meat, milk, vegetable and legume groups), are essential in composing dishes; they cannot be substituted
ABSTRACTS
III. Modern
and Traditional
Change and Stability
Eating in the Nordic
Countries
in Nordic Eating Habits. KAJ ILMONEN.
Institute for Economic Research, Htimeentie 8 A, SF-00530
Labour Helsinki, Finland.
Until the 196Os,tradition was the leading principle in Nordic food choices. Since then it has lost its role and two new trends have emerged in food demand, namely the increasing use of convenience and ethnic (or international) foods. Structural changes, such as the transition of women into wage earning and the increase of singles among adult population, explain fairly well the growing interest in convenience foods. The internalization of Scandinavian food habits, however, does not have a simple explanation. It can be understood only by paying attention both to saturation with convenience and traditional foods and to the complex interplay between tourism and fashion. The new trends of the Nordic table have not advanced straightforwardly. Both convenience and ethnic foods have faced resistance because of their strangeness. This means that in order to meet demand they must first be made culturally familiar. Consequently, ethnic foods are “domesticated” by reducing spices and adding familiar ingredients. Therefore, one can say that changes in the Nordic eating habits represent cautious “reformism” (as the countries do politically as well). The case of convenience foods is different from that of ethnic foods because the former are semi-prepared meals that have undergone transition from nature to culture. In this metamorphosis, familiar has become alien. In order to win consumers’ acceptance, the food must be made culturally familiar again. This has not been easy, because convenience foods have been regarded as the negative opposite of organically grown foods. Convenience foods are considered dubious and artificial, whereas the organically grown foods are held to be natural and pure. In Food We Trust? Vitally Necessary Confidence-and Unfamiliar Ways of Forming Public Opinion. ANN-MAR1 SELLERBERG. Department of Sociologv, University of Lund, Box 114,2-22100 Lund, Sweden. Distrust of or confidence in life-sustaining nourishment is obviously a matter of vita1 importance. Yet the ways in which we arrive at either of these crucial attitudes are essentially unknown. Three questions, all with a bearing on people’s confidence in food, were addressed to a representative sample of the Swedish population. As it turned out, people whose education and income showed differences, men and women, and persons in different age-groups came up with very similar answers. Demographic factors did not seem to matter. “Highly charged” food examples have a special way of influencing public opinion. Such examples of distrust can be described in terms of a confrontation of opposites; one characteristic reinforces awareness of the opposite characteristic. Various characteristics of food become distinctive symbols of what is natural+r unnatural and synthetic. Attempts are made by authorities to ensure the generation of people’s trust by legislative means. Formal value limits, etc., are held up officially as grounds for confidence. However, distrust can not be delimited by official regulations; trust is impossible to produce according to plan. Indeed, when such attempts are made, they may result in the opposite effect: the signals which are supposed to ensure confidence speak a symbolic language of a very different nature, and distrust is engendered instead. A Model for Adaptation to a New Food Pattern: the Case of Immigrants. TAHIRE KOCKTURK-RUNEFORS. State Food Administration, Box 622, S-75726, Uppsala, Sweden. In meal preparation, certain foods are considered more important or more “real” and “basic” than others. Basic foods which consist of staple and its complements (the meat, milk, vegetable and legume groups), are essential in composing dishes; they cannot be substituted