Trust in food in modern and late-modern societies

Abstract

This article investigates the way mainstream social theories of trust can help us understand how trust in food is produced and maintained in modern and late- or postmodern societies. In the first section, the author identifies and discusses three theoretical bases for trust in food: emotional, habitual and reflexive trust. He puts a particular emphasis on habitual trust, and explores four different bases for habitual trust — community, rational organization, policy and systems of knowledge — discussing their importance for trust in food. In the second section, the author examines how these bases come together to produce trust in food in traditional, modern and late- or postmodern societies, respectively. Finally, Bildtgård argues that certification schemes can be perceived as a technique for producing trust in food that is particularly well suited to late-modern/postmodern societies.