Designing 'Good food'
Designing good food: normative work in food-industry nutrigenomics
Societal issues surrounding genomics research and development (R&D) activities in industry have so far hardly been studied. CSG zooms in on the innovation process within food multinational Unilever. Research will focus on how society enters the lab – through regulations, standards, expectations, image or stories from the past. CSG will also map out how health, safety, taste, sustainability and other standards determine the development of new food products and what role genomics plays in this process. What other standards are relevant here? How do these emerge? Which standards get priority and why?
To find the answers, the researchers will observe the daily routine in the labs, as well as in other departments, e.g. in marketing and sales. The researchers will attend meetings; analyze documentation and literature and interview employees. This process aims to stimulate mutual learning between the people involved in 'hard' science and those in societal research and between Unilever and CSG. The researchers in this project will provide their results as direct input for the product developers, thereby contributing to responsible innovation within the food industry.
Start project: June 2008