103Abstract
This study review summarizes the results of a sci-
entific expertise which was commissioned by the
French Ministry of Agriculture in 2010. It aims to
define the typologies of food behaviours and their
changes in time, to establish the state of the art on
the determinants of these behaviours and their
impact on health and finally to examine the nu-
merous public or private actions or campaigns
aiming to improve these behaviours and to conclude
on their effects.
- Introduction: Context and objectives of the
collective scientific expertise
This paper reports the main conclusions of a
Collective Scientific Expertise (CoSE) commis-
sioned by the French Ministry of Food, Agriculture
and Fisheries and conducted by INRA (French
National Agriculture Research Institute) from May
2010 until June 20 11. Research into the links
between diet and maintaining good health has
gradually widened in scope, from research into the
relationship between nutrients and health (e.g. the
role of vitamins), to the complex nutritional effects
of food – thus recommending the consumption of
certain foods containing more valuable nutrients
(e.g. fruit and vegetables, less saturated fatty
acids) – and how best to combine foods within diet.
For several years, public policies based on these
findings have led to initiatives aiming to render diet
more beneficial to health (nutritional information
campaigns, concerted action with the food industry).
But the growing number of overweight people
shows that this action has fallen short of its objective.
In order to make these public policies more effec-
tive, it is important to know better how consumers
make their food choices and which are their deter-
minants. How are these affected by food composition,
hunger, level of education, income, advertising,
accessibility and so on, depending on the con-
sumer’s age. These issues led the French Ministry
of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries to commission
INRA to undertake a collective scientific expertise,
and thus to obtain an updated state of published
scientific knowledge on these different determi-
nants for use in guiding policy-makers.
Dietary behaviours are formed by considerations
that are not all connected with food and nutrition
per se. Investigating these behaviours means making
the connection between all the relevant disciplines–
epidemiology, nutrition, food science, psychology,
sociology, economics – in order to grasp how be-
haviours are formed, and how levers can be used to
modify them so that they are in line with nutritional
guidelines.- CoSE methods and scope
The CoSE is based on certified international scien-
tific articles, which guarantees reliability of the
information used. A group of about 20 scientific
experts working for various scientific institutions
in France (INRA, Institut Pasteur in Lille, Univer-
sity Hospital in Lille, CIHEAM, CNRS) were involved
in this CoSE. Their expertise covered areas as
diverse as epidemiology, physiology, food sciences,
economics, sociology, marketing and psychology.
Their work drew upon a total of about 1 840 articles,
9 3 percent of which were scientific, in addition to
statistical data, books and technical reports. The
experts selected all the relevant facts in these
documents, then analysed and assembled them to
provide insight into the issues in hand.
The CoSE gives neither opinions nor recommen-
dations. It presents a thorough review of the
knowledge available on the determinants of dietary
behaviour, using a multidisciplinary approach
combining the life sciences with the human and
social sciences. It also outlines some prospective
measures, based on an evaluation of a number of
public or private initiatives. It examines human
dietary behaviour overall and refers neither to
pathologies and eating disorders requiring medical
treatment (malnutrition, bulimia, anorexia, etc.)
nor to specific eating practices (vegetarianism,