New EU project for CAS Fellows

COSUS: New EU project as part of the Ecology of Food Perception concept. This three-year project will be coordinated by Marije Oostindjer.

Abstract

Our food environments are complex: in Europe you can buy food almost everywhere, at any time of the day, and there is a lot of variety available of both foods that are considered healthy and unhealthy. This large amount of food makes that people not only buy and eat too much food, but also waste a lot of food: 25% of all food that is bought is thrown away. Often this food is thrown away because it does not look appealing anymore: a banana that turned brown, apples with spots, bread or cookies that cracked on the way home from the supermarket, or yoghurt at the best-before date. Most of the time the taste of the food is still good and it is still healthy. A new EU project (COSUS) will encourage people to accept these kinds of foods that look suboptimal, but are still perfectly fine to eat. This project is coordinated by Marije Oostindjer, who is project coordinator for the Ecology of Food Perception project at CAS, 2013-2014. In total 6 partners from 5 European countries are involved in this three year project. Four of the partners are currently participating in the Ecology of Food Perception as visiting fellows during the topic period ‘Food information and communication’. The EU COSUS project is a prime example of a project that fits within the Ecology of Food Perception concept and the current topic period. It aims to successfully develop and implement strategies that encourage people to make better choices that provide a win-win situation for everyone involved (consumers, supermarkets, suppliers and the environment).