INTRODUCTION

The IRP “Food, Cultures and Health” is developed in partnership between the Centre d’Etude et Recherche Travail Organisation Pouvoir (CERTOP) UMR-CNRS 5044, Toulouse, France and the Centre for Research and Innovation in Tourism (CRiT), Taylor’s University, Malaysia. It addresses the transformation of the food system organisation and of the social representations and meanings associated to food during the process of modernization in Southeast Asia countries.

After several years of educational and scientific cooperation with Taylor’s University, the establishment of this LIA marked another milestone of partnership and scientific research between the two universities. It extends and amplifies the work developed under the Chair of Food Studies of Taylor’s Toulouse University Centre (TTUC).

MISSIONS AND RESEARCH THEMES

This IRP project is an extension of the LIA Food, Cultures & Health, concluded between France and Malaysia in 2016. It associates the CNRS and the Centre d’Etudes et de Recherche Travail Organisation Pouvoir (CERTOP), University Toulouse – Jean Jaurès (School of Tourism, Hospitality and Food Studies – ISTHIA) with Taylor’s University in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). It is a continuation of Franco-Malaysian academic and scientific cooperation between these two partners. After more than 30 years of pedagogical and scientific collaborations, the creation of this LIA and its continuation with the IRP mark the rise of this partnership and the scientific research carried out there.

The main mission of this IRP is to pool expertise, facilities and material resources to carry out a scientific project to study the links between diet and health from the perspective of Euro-Asian populations. Initially the two focus areas of research are: strengthening the network of “Food Barometers” in Asia and the establishment of “Experimental Restaurants” to study the eating behaviour, based on standardized protocols both in Toulouse, France and in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

main projects of research

Encompasses two main research programmes:

1. “Dynamic and modernized dimensions of food patterns in developing multi-ethnic societies”. Relying on macro-sociological data collected by Asian Food Barometers to study the consequences of changing food practices on public health (obesity and non-communicable diseases) and food cultures patrimonialization.
2. “Impact of socio-technological contexts on food practices “, a European-Asian mirrored study through the use of two experimental platforms.

1. Asian Food Barometer

The Food Barometers’ objective is to provide data on socio-cultural contexts of food and eating habits and their developments at a national scale. These elements are particularly useful for sectors of economy and public health. It will analyse combined effects of social factors, such as social status, education level, gender, generation, household size and urbanisation, and it also analyses ethno-cultural aspects of food and its consequences on population’s health.

The Asian Food Barometer addresses three mains scientific topics:

1. The theories of transition (demographic, epidemiological, nutritional, protein), their evolution and reorganization;
2. The “compressed modernization” and its consequences on food habits, food cultures and health;
3. The theories of risk and the way in which the empirical field of the food crises invites to reorganize it by taking better account of the anxieties.

The Asian Food Barometer project started in Malaysia, with the launch of the first “Malaysian Food Barometer” in 2014. A second “Malaysian Food Barometer” was completed in 2018, it included in depth socio-cultural determinants and nutritional analysis. The first partnership on Food Barometers in Asia was with SEAMEO RECFON, Indonesia with work on the “Indonesian Food Barometer”.

The Asian Food Barometer project is carried out in conjunction with several research programmes:

• Flagship Research Programme Obesity & Health

This programme addresses one of the most important challenges of the Asian societies, that is, the rise of non-communicable diseases that accompany the nutritional transition related to modernization of the population’s food habits. The diet-related health problems in Asia, in particular Malaysia is serious because of the very rapid speed of modernization in this part of the world (compacted modernity). This five years programme will focus on the socio- cultural determinants of “food and nutrition transition” in Asia and will make some concrete propositions to face the challenge and help reduce the economic burden related to rising non-communicable diseases.

1.2. SCRIPT: Socio Cultural and Economic Research in Protein Transition in South East Asia: focus on Malaysia & Indonesia

While the adoption of higher energy intakes and more energy-dense diets appears in the frame of the nutrition transition theory (Drewnowski, Popkin, 1997) to be a “universal” incomes-driven phenomenon, dietary shifts from plant to animal proteins (meat, fish or dairy) are much more dependent on culture, religion, and other country-specific variables. A multidisciplinary research team with expertise in Nutrition, Social Sciences and Public Health has conducted the proposed project.

Study protocol was based on the established Malaysian Food Barometer (MFB) with modifications and adaptations to meet the objectives of the project. The MFB was specifically developed to study aspects of the nutrition transition in the rapidly developing and urbanized countries of Asia and South East Asia. Largely based on social sciences, the MFB provides valuable additional insight to classical nutritional or economic studies (Poulain et al. 2014).

1.3. “Eating out in Asia”

Based on more or less partial information and data coming from heterogeneous sources, one claims often that the level of eating out in Asia is higher than in Europe. And is probably higher also than in most countries of the world, including USA. But due to the lack of comparable data that is produced at a representative level and with the same methodology, it is not possible to document and to objectivise this phenomenon. The repartition of meals between home and outside the home is an important question, because it allows understanding the different contexts, in which the food and eating decisions are taken. The purpose of this research is to fulfil this lake of knowledge, by conducting a multinational survey on the repartition of meals and food intakes in 6 Asian Countries (China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia) and France. This research will also study the socio-cultural determinants of eating out.

The results will be useful in economics to understand the organization of the demand of food market. They will be useful for public health to base the recommendations on real life situations. For research in food studies, the findings are expected to contribute to the description of the food cultures through the place the form of socialization, the modality of socialization and of transmission from one generation to another. In addition, the international design of the survey is allowing the analysis of some of the dimensions of the nutrition transition in the rapidly developing and urbanizing countries of Asia and South East Asia. France was added to the project to allow future comparisons between Asian and South East Asian countries and a European country. The survey has been completed in March 2020 with data collected from countries (China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and France), counting a global sample of 15,000 individuals.

 2. Impact of socio-technical contexts on food practices: Experimental platforms to study eating behaviours in context (OVALIE in France and experimental Restaurant in Malaysia)

The “Experimental Platform” plans to explore in detail the influence of physical and social contexts on eating behaviour among individuals and small groups in different settings (home, hospital room, restaurants, etc.). A suitable space, equipped with automated tools (cameras, microphones) backed up with facial recognition software will be in place to capture real live situations. These observations will help to enrich the scope of eating behaviour based on new types of empirical data such as facial recognition of taste emotions and digital analysis of social interactions.

On the Malaysian side, the Experimental Platform project is carried out in conjunction with several research programmes:

• Flagship Research Programme Obesity & Health

This programme addresses one of the most important challenges of the Asian societies, that is, the rise of non-communicable diseases that accompany the nutritional transition related to modernization of the population’s food habits. The diet-related health problems in Asia, in particular Malaysia is serious because of the very rapid speed of modernization in this part of the world (compacted modernity). This five years programme will focus on the socio- cultural determinants of “food and nutrition transition” in Asia and will make some concrete propositions to face the challenge and help reduce the economic burden related to rising non-communicable diseases.

• Partnership Hubert Curien France-Malaysia Hibiscus (PHC Hibiscus) “The Socialization of eating practices in children with Prader-Willi syndrome”

This project focuses on food socialization based on the case of Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS), a complex neurodevelopmental disorder representing major development challenge for children that limits their socialization, especially around food. This project aims to identify the description and understanding of the food socialization of children with PWS in order to contribute to the support systems, improve management and care facilities; it also approaches the pathological study to understand typical situations. The research methodologies that will be used are expert interviews, ethnographic observations of children’s interactions with their families at home as well as observations in a controlled socio-behavioural lab setting. The findings may than be adapted to the public health education and management of food related behaviours within the framework of the prevention of pathologies such as obesity and type 2 diabetes that originate from eating.

INSTITUTIONS AND LABORATORIES INVOLVED

France

• Coordination : Prof. Jean-Pierre Poulain, CERTOP UMR-CNRS 5044 – Université Toulouse – Jean Jaurès, Toulouse

Malaysia

• Prof. Ismail Mohamed Noor, CRiT, Taylor’s University, Kuala Lumpur

Associated indonesian partner

• SEAMEO RECFON