Abstract
Food consumer science (FCS) is the study of how consumers perceive, learn about, desire, acquire, use, and dispose of foods, food products, and services in the marketplace to satisfy their needs. Despite its maturation over the past decades, the FCS field faces new challenges and opportunities that require next steps to become the data-rich science that can support evidence-based public policies and private strategies and its growth as an academic discipline. This commentary introduces a new approach for FCS centred on three interconnected levels of integration (i.e., data sharing and integration, institutional collaboration and community integration) to cultivate a collaborative culture. We illustrate this using the European Horizon 2020 Research Infrastructures COMFOCUS project.
We identify three key challenges for advancing the field: 1) achieving FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) data through the harmonisation of diverse measures and through the sharing and integration of datasets, 2) optimizing resource utilization by enhancing access to research facilities, and 3) fostering collaboration among early-career researchers. The success of this ambitious transformation relies heavily on effective collaboration among scientists and stakeholders. Through our experiences and activities in the COMFOCUS project, a pilot of an integrated and open FCS community, we illustrate the potential of FCS as a harmonised, data-rich science that can significantly contribute to healthier and more sustainable food systems. This commentary concludes with a discussion of the challenges that are related to this proposed new way of working.