Les comportements alimentaires - Quels en sont les déterminants ? Quelles actions pour les faire évoluer vers une meilleure adéquation avec les recommandations nutritionnelles ? Les conclusions de l’expertise scientifique collective conduite par l’INRA en 2010

Although public policies have for many years spearheaded information campaigns about how eating affects health, rising obesity rates show that the expected effects have yet to be achieved. Why consumers do not practically comply with nutritional recommendations? This question lead the ministry in charge of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries to require in 2010 an updated state of knowledge for peer-reviewed literature and to commission INRA to undertake a collective scientific expertise on dietary behaviours. The aim was to investigate the multiple determinants of behaviours and how behaviours form and change in individuals according to social class and age, but also collectively over a long period of time. The expertise reports that the consumer is subjected to different environmental stimuli which can bias opinion and that dietary behavior can be affected by information strategies combining different tools and targeting individuals or specific groups.This article sets out the conclusions of the expertise report which draws on nearly 1,600 scientific articles from around the world and was prepared by some twenty experts from fields as diverse as epidemiology, nutrition, sociology and economics.