The Routledge Companion to Trust

25Trust in Food

Assuring quality, sustainability, price and availability

Lovisa Näslund and Fergus Lyon

Introduction

We often take access to food for granted and only question this when there are food scares. The horse meat scandal of 2008 and various scandals of baby milk quality are examples where trust has become central to public debates. But how can we trust what we are eating and how can we trust those providing food around the world. Access to secure and adequate food is a universal human need, as is evident in the annual global retail food sales of 4 trillion USD, half of which is the result of international trade (USDA, 2016; World Trade Statistical Review, 2016). However, eating could also be seen as inherently a source of anxiety, ...