Annabell Merkel
Doktorand
Making seaweeds tasty – the becoming of novel food products
Författare
Summary, in English
As global food systems are currently presenting great challenges to our environment and our health, diverse new (sustainable) foods and possibilities to integrate these into consumers’ everyday diets are extensively studied. Due to industrialized, standardized food production, approaches from disciplines such as sensory science and consumer psychology play an important role in new product development and dominate our understanding of how to turn new resources into accepted foods. Research in this tradition has found that consumers are positive towards eating seaweed and to expand utilization of seaweed as a food in Western societies could be promising, with seaweed often portrayed as an environmentally sustainable and healthy food.
Several of these studies emphasize the need for appealing and tasty forms of seaweed food, while taste is conceptualized as a stable product quality. The social, material, and cultural situatedness of tasting as an activity in everyday life is rarely included in the study design or the analyses. Critical discussions about the various dimensions included in tasting food remain outside the main research field. This is problematic, as other research has suggested that tasting is a highly situated activity, embedded in material contexts and taking place in interactions.
Theoretically, this study draws inspiration from research exploring how different materials become edible and food for humans, as well as Science and Technology Studies conceptualizing taste as something that is being co-produced in interactive processes by different entities. These processes involve multiple actors, human and non-human, they are relational, and experienced through multisensorial engagements with the food’s materiality.
In Sweden, no major previous traditions of eating seaweed have been reported, and it is currently a niche product that is being introduced into a mainstream culture, through for example innovative food products, chefs, and new (culinary) experiences. As a new food it becomes gradually visible in consumers’ everyday life, but it is unclear if and how seaweed will get integrated in people’s diet and become an appreciated and tasty food.
Based on ethnographic fieldwork in a sensory science laboratory in Sweden, I explore material dimensions that contribute to making seaweed a tasty food product, during preparations for a sensory testing. As part of an interdisciplinary study investigating the potential of seaweed for food in new markets, a sensory analysis was conducted in January 2022. During the descriptive training and parts of the final sensory assessment, observations and open expert conversations have been conducted.
The study is currently ongoing. The results might support establishing foods new to a specific context as appreciated, mainstream products, and support a dietary transition towards more sustainable, plant-based eating. Moreover, the findings might demonstrate the fruitful interplay of interdisciplinary research on novel foods and highlight the contribution of social theories and qualitative methodologies
to product development and consumer science.
Several of these studies emphasize the need for appealing and tasty forms of seaweed food, while taste is conceptualized as a stable product quality. The social, material, and cultural situatedness of tasting as an activity in everyday life is rarely included in the study design or the analyses. Critical discussions about the various dimensions included in tasting food remain outside the main research field. This is problematic, as other research has suggested that tasting is a highly situated activity, embedded in material contexts and taking place in interactions.
Theoretically, this study draws inspiration from research exploring how different materials become edible and food for humans, as well as Science and Technology Studies conceptualizing taste as something that is being co-produced in interactive processes by different entities. These processes involve multiple actors, human and non-human, they are relational, and experienced through multisensorial engagements with the food’s materiality.
In Sweden, no major previous traditions of eating seaweed have been reported, and it is currently a niche product that is being introduced into a mainstream culture, through for example innovative food products, chefs, and new (culinary) experiences. As a new food it becomes gradually visible in consumers’ everyday life, but it is unclear if and how seaweed will get integrated in people’s diet and become an appreciated and tasty food.
Based on ethnographic fieldwork in a sensory science laboratory in Sweden, I explore material dimensions that contribute to making seaweed a tasty food product, during preparations for a sensory testing. As part of an interdisciplinary study investigating the potential of seaweed for food in new markets, a sensory analysis was conducted in January 2022. During the descriptive training and parts of the final sensory assessment, observations and open expert conversations have been conducted.
The study is currently ongoing. The results might support establishing foods new to a specific context as appreciated, mainstream products, and support a dietary transition towards more sustainable, plant-based eating. Moreover, the findings might demonstrate the fruitful interplay of interdisciplinary research on novel foods and highlight the contribution of social theories and qualitative methodologies
to product development and consumer science.
Avdelning/ar
- Institutionen för tjänstevetenskap
Publiceringsår
2025-04-08
Språk
Engelska
Sidor
31-32
Dokumenttyp
Konferensbidrag: abstract
Ämne
- Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified
Conference name
SCORAI Europe Conference 2025
Conference date
2025-04-08 - 2025-04-10
Conference place
Lund, Sweden
Aktiv
Published