Paper short abstract:

It is the aim of our approach to draw attention to the study of everyday domestic practice of cooking and eating in order to contribute to the development of proposals applicable to decision making in various areas relevant to planning and policy implementation.

Paper long abstract:

Contemporary society is characterized by its interest in food. This interest defines several areas: cultural change, nutrition and food technology. In turn, these areas refer to the field of health and the field of economy.

While, at present, knowledge about food derived from basic research and technology development is vast, this is not the case for the inquiry about everyday domestic practice of cooking and eating.

However, knowledge of these issues is key because the meaning and effect of food is not built in the basic components level, but in the process of their transformation and consumption.

Knowing the ways of selection and procurement of food resources, who prepare them, how they are manufactured, and how they are distributed and shared, provide key information about the sociocultural dynamics. The system of conventions that dictates what is edible or inedible, convenient or detrimental, appropriate or inappropriate, toxic, what satiety means, and so on, is a cultural fact.

This requires a change of approach to the subject from anthropology in order to contribute to considerations of biomedical sectors. Particularly interesting is the realistic assessment of energy availability of food in relation to the actual intake of food in everyday consumption.

It is the aim of our approach the study of cooking and eating so that the knowledge to be acquired is translatable into a common code that allows the development of proposals applicable to decision making in various areas relevant to planning and policy implementation.