Understanding how healthcare providers build consumer trust in the Australian food system: A qualitative study

Abstract

AbstractAimThis study aimed to identify how dietitians and other healthcare providers work to build trust in food systems in the course of providing dietary education.MethodsQualitative semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 15 purposefully sampled dietitians (n = 5), general practitioners (n = 5), and complementary and alternative medicine practitioners (n = 5) within metropolitan South Australia. Interview data were then interpreted using an inductive thematic analysis approach, involving the construction of themes representing trust‐enhancing roles around which beliefs about professional roles, the ‘patient’, and food and health were clustered.ResultsHealthcare providers communicate beliefs regarding (dis)trust in food systems through: (i) responding to patient queries and concerns following a food incident or scare; (ii) helping patients to identify (un)trustworthy elements of food supply systems; and (iii) encouraging consumption of locally produced and minimally processed food. Importantly, the expression of these roles differed according to participant beliefs about food and health (medico‐scientific versus alternative medicine) and their adoption of professional projects that sought to promote medico‐scientific ways of thinking about health and diet or manage the failures of Western medicine.ConclusionThe development and consolidation of trust‐enhancing roles amongst healthcare providers likely requires disciplinary reflection on professional values and the processes by which practitioners apply these values to understanding food systems.