Food culture in rural Northern Ireland

Abstract

Introduction Food and food consumption is profoundly social. The way we think about food, decide what we eat, where to buy it and how to prepare it is linked with a range of social, cultural and economic factors. This ethnographic study looks at how some of these issues were expressed among participants in the ‘Decent Food for All’ intervention run by the Armagh and Dungannon Health Action Zone (ADHAZ) in Northern Ireland. This study is a component of ‘All-Ireland Learning from the Decent Food for All’ Intervention’ a research and evaluation intervention coordinated by the Institute of Public Health in Ireland and funded by the Food Safety Promotion Board. To date research related to cultural conceptualisations of food and food consumption has not been conducted in Northern Ireland, therefore this study provides new empirical information.