Ekte eller falsk? Kampen om vaniljesmaken og merking av industrielt produsert mat

This article shows how cultural constructions of food can have a relatively direct impact on food policy, and thus form an important part of the mediation processes associated with the integration of new, synthetic products into our food systems. Since 2010, food product labeling in Norway has received far greater attention than before – from politicians, the regulatory authorities, manufacturers, consumer organizations and consumers. The regulation and practical handling of labeling has also become considerably more stringent. The article argues that this trend should be seen in the context of changes in the cultural understandings of “authentic” and “fake” food in the preceding decade. During the 2000s, many Norwegians gained a new understanding of vanilla. The previously appreciated vanilla flavor we knew from vanilla sugar, vanilla ice cream and vanilla sauce was revealed to be from industrially produced, artificial vanillin. Not only did this substance have no connection to the vanilla orchid, from which real vanilla derives, vanillin was to a great extent produced from the by-products of the paper industry and crude oil. These new understandings – or cultural constructions – can be seen in the context of an evolving international critique of modern and industrial food production. In this discourse, industrialized food products are construed as unnatural and false if presented as “ordinary” food. This article examines how new understandings of vanilla flavoring emerged and increased in importance and scope in Norway in the period after the year 2000. Furthermore, it argues that these cultural constructions were decisive in making the regulation and practice of food labeling stricter and subject to greater scrutiny in the following decade.