FoodRisC: A new tool to improve communication

The European Commission-funded project FoodRisC aims to understand current barriers to communicating the risks and benefits of food and identify potential remedies for such challenges. The project seeks to produce a practical toolkit that enables effective and balanced food risk communication.

In this interview, Dr Julie Barnett, reader in healthcare research at Brunel University, talks about her work in the FoodRisC project developing the EnGauge tool*. She explains what the tool can be used for and the impact it could have for policy makers and communicators.

About Dr Julie Barnett

Dr Barnett was involved in developing the initial proposal for FoodRisC when she was part of the University of Surrey. Her research interests lie in risk perception and risk communication, including developing models of the public and incorporating their perspectives in the development of policy, practice and technology.

She has been working on the EnGauge tool* which will be used to investigate the questions and concerns of the general public about food risk issues. The tool also measures the way people interact with the information; their information seeking behaviours and how these relate to the concerns they have expressed.

* Since the preparation of this podcast, the EnGauge tool has been renamed to Vizzata.