"Improving Public Understanding: Guidelines for Communicating the Emerging Science on Nutrition, Food Safety and Health"
The Harvard School of Public Health and the International Food Information Council Foundation (1998)

URL: http://www.ific.org/proactive/newsroom/release.vtml?id=17560 or via search at http://www.food-information.org/food_safety.asp

SITE SUMMARY: These guidelines, first published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, February 4, 1998, are provided to help in clearly communicating to the public, the scientific process, the evolutionary nature of research, the identity of scientific evidence, and scientists' different views, all as related to the science of nutrition, food safety, and health, from the viewpoints of scientists, journal editors, journalists, and special interest groups (i.e., for consumers). These guidelines are meant to result in communication that has effects on the public's behavior and well-being regarding the science of nutrition, food safety, and health, and for helping the public understand these subjects because people's interest in them has been growing for years.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES

1. See, preceding the guidelines, comments written by Timothy Johnson, Medical Editor of the ABC TV program Good Morning America. Which four things did he urge regarding these guidelines? What, did he say, "just might make a difference," and how? Which three things did he think "the public wants"? Choose a subject on nutrition, food safety, or health-related nutrition or food, and apply to this subject the first two points of what Dr. Johnson said.
2. Briefly state the main points of the general guidelines, then those of the guidelines for scientists, for journalists, journal editors, and special interest groups.
3. Imagine you are a journalist, scientist, journal editor, then a member of a special interest group with concern for consumers. Choose four particular subjects from the items you see at any of the Web sites cited at the end of this Question/Activity or choose four particular subjects you think of after seeing the general topics of the items at any of these Web sites. Apply to the subjects you thought of, or chose, the general guidelines for all, then the particular guidelines for journalists, scientists, journal editors, and special interest groups with concern for consumers. See the Web sites Food and Nutrition Web sites, Institute of Food Science and Technology (UK)—Current Hot Topics; FAQs About Food Science, Nutrition, and Safety at the Institute for Food Science and Safety; and nutrition-related news in News Updates and Special Reports at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. (Their urls are cited in the Related Internet Sites section below, or in this book's Appendix B.)
4. See the document "Using Science to Avoid Chaos in the Food Realm," especially its question "How, exactly, do we base food safety discussions on science?" (Its url is cited in the Related Internet Sites section below.) Provide details on the answer to this question. Offer your own ideas to help answer the question, then state your reasons to support your ideas. Also support what you say by citing sources that you find (if available on your subject) at the Web sites cited in Question/Activity no. 3 above.

RELATED INTERNET SITE(S)

Institute of Food Science and Technology (UK)—Current Hot Topics

http://www.ifst.org/hottop.htm

Recent reports found via links have included titles such as "Genetic Modification and Food," "The Use of Irradiation for Food Quality and Safety," "Food Poisoning and Its Prevention," "Food Allergens," "Foodbourne Campylobacteria and How to Safeguard Against It," and "New Approach to Risk Assessment of Natural Toxicants in Food."

FAQs about Food Science, Nutrition and Safety—Institute of Food Science and Safety

http://www.ifst.org/ifstfaq.htm

Topics addressed are arranged in four groups that include Science and Food Fads, Food and Nutrition, Food Safety, and Additives and Packaging.

"Using Science to Avoid Chaos in the Food Safety Realm" by Thomas J. Billy

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OA/speeches/1999/tb_chamber.htm

As the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service Administrator, and as the chairman of the Codex Alimentarius Commission working to develop international food standards, Billy addressed the question "How, exactly, do we base food safety discussions on science?"

President's Council on Food Safety—Preliminary Food Safety Strategic Plan, and Draft

http://www.foodsafety.gov/∼fsg/cstrpl-3.html

This document for public review was issued on January 7, 2000. It includes background information, an introduction, a Vision Statement, the Overarching Goal, Science and Risk Assessment, Risk Management and Risk Communication Goals, Food Safety: The Nation's Challenge, Food Safety Regulation Today, Strategic Planning, Organizational Considerations, President's Food Safety Initiative, President's Council on Food Safety, and an afterword.

Food and Nutrition Web Sites

http://www.riskworld.com/websites/webfiles/ws6aa006.htm

Under Risk World Departments, see links to Reports and Papers, News, News Archives, and Abstracts. Under Internal Web Sites, see the link to the Risk Science and Law Group.