"Specialised training (in-class courses at New York University, online courses offered by the EIT Food platform in collaboration with the University of Turin and various universities, and participation in the Global launch of the EAT-Lancet Commission on Food, Planet, Health (UN), the Food Journalism Festival in Turin, and other relevant events), as well as structured phases of desk research, allowed us to gain appropriate interdisciplinary knowledge on the relation between nutrition and health and to gather and analyse secondary data on food and health-related issues, with specific reference to the analyses topics. Thus we could identify and study the main problematic aspects related to such issues, especially as regards their definition and general understanding, as well as the specific legislations regulating them. The applied research then allowed us to investigate the role of communication processes, and especially social media, in the creation and propagation of a series of so-called “food myths” (or, more generally, narratives) concerning such issues. More precisely, we analysed a series of relevant case studies of digital communication (mainly taken from Facebook and in some cases also Instagram, which proved to be the most relevant platforms for the research) to describe how specific food myths and narratives are generated and perpetuated. In order to ensure compliance with both the GDPR and local regulations on data protection, the analysis was limited to publicly available posts and comments. Moreover, data minimisation and anonymisation, as well as confidentiality of the collected information, were guaranteed.
On the theoretical level, special attention was devoted to crucial issues emerged during the research: the link between food and culture; the mythical discourse (in ancient times vs. in contemporary digitalised cultures) and the analysis of ideology; the “post-truth” society and digital communication; conspiracy theories; the concept of Nature and its textualisation; ""(post-)gastromania"" and food politics.
The main findings of the research were disseminated through the organisation of two international conferences (""Food for Thought: Nourishment, Culture, Meaning"", hosted by New York University, and ""Foodologies: Nourishment, Language, Communication"", hosted by the University of Turin), and active participation in several other symposia, congresses and academic lectures (in the US, Italy, Argentina, Peru, Bulgaria, Poland, China, Cyprus and Romania), as well as by means of academic publications (including various peer-reviewed papers and book chapters, two books of abstracts, edited volumes and a monograph—which have already been released or are in press). Furthermore, the results were communicated to society at large through a number of activities of public engagement (e.g. participation in the European Researchers’ Night 2019 and 2020, public presentations, infodays, activities with students, etc.) and media communication (project website, Facebook page “Communication for Food Protection”, interviews, articles, and publicity materials). Finally, consistent efforts were devoted to networking (between the involved institutions, and with other universities and non-academic entities and research consortia) and career development, as well as to providing scientists and stakeholders with effective communicative tools and guidelines to oppose misinformation and foster food protection."
