Conditions for Trust in Food

Abstract

In the last two chapters, an interpretation of trust and distrust in food as exhibited in the survey has been developed through an institutional analysis. Different qualities of trust and distrust are seen as emergent properties of differently aligned relationships between differently institutionalized consumers, market provisioners and state regulatory authorities. Analysing the six ‘triangular affairs of trust’ suggests, at one level, that each set of complex relationships generates distinctive, sui generis, emergent properties of trust and distrust. Norwegians do not trust food highly in the same way as consumers in the United Kingdom. Italians do not distrust food in the same way as the Portuguese. The triads emphasize difference, across the board, so that each national case appears unique.