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Robert Abbott: Information Services Manager, Boots Healthcare International, Nottingham, UK
ACKNOWLEDGMENT: The author wishes to thank The Boots Company plc and the University of Brighton for help with this study, and in particular Janet Illing and David Horner from those respective organizations.
Introduction
The trend towards healthier eating in recent years has increased consumer demand for more detailed, accurate and accessible information, principally on food package labels, and covering nutritional content, ingredients and claims, as well as aspects relating to food safety, such as expiry dates, storage and cooking instructions[1]. Many surveys have found that consumers say they want and would use nutrition information[2], and it may also be that many personal decisions about diet would be helped by some understanding of the underlying science[3]. The public need help in distinguishing accurate nutrition information from that which is false or misleading. However, an awareness of healthy eating practices is no guarantee of their adoption.
Nutritional understanding would seem to fall within the wider scope of the public understanding of science, although as yet it has scarcely been investigated by the practitioners of that discipline. Precursors go back a long way, but awareness of public understanding of science as an issue really began in the UK in 1985 with the Royal Society report produced by Sir Walter Bodmer[3], with a popular version the following year[4]. This report aimed to show why it was important that all sections of the public should have some understanding of science, and to stimulate action by scientists and others to improve this understanding. A basic thesis of the report was that better public understanding of science can be a major element in promoting national prosperity, in raising the quality of public and private decision-making, and in enriching the life of the individual. The public are exposed to all sorts of scientific issues which they need to understand, in order to reach the right decisions. One of these issues is the choice of diet.
Durant et al.[5] comment that much scientific knowledge is remote from and irrelevant to everyday life, and this is true for scientists and non-scientists alike. Nutrition, as an everyday necessity, is an obvious exception. Knowledge of nutritional science and its correct understanding and adoption in practice can positively...