A new and improved comprehensive resource for information on food safety and nutrition is on its way to journalists and health professionals. The IFIC Foundation 2004-2006 Media Guide on Food Safety & Nutrition is useful as a quick reference guide on nutrition, weight loss and obesity, dietary supplements, sugars and sweeteners, food allergies, food safety, agricultural issues and food production, food biotechnology, ingredients and additives, and international issues.
An integral part of the Media Guide is its listing of more than 250 scientific experts in virtually all food safety and nutrition issues. The experts are primarily affiliated with universities and the Media Guide provides their complete contact information. In addition, the experts are indexed by their area of expertise, to allow journalists to research food and nutrition issues more efficiently. All scientists are renowned in their fields and, more importantly, are media friendly: all have agreed to make themselves available for reporters’ inquiries in between their research or teaching activities.
What Is It and Where Did It Come From?
The 2004-2006 edition of the Media Guide is the latest and most advanced in a series that has evolved mightily over the past decade. This sixth edition is compact, yet comprehensive, offering quick background information on all food safety and nutrition issues. Sidebars on the first page of each chapter offer URLs for Web pages on the IFIC Web site, ific.org, which has itself evolved into a comprehensive collection of highly relevant articles, brochures, referenced scientific reviews, question and answer sections, and research summaries.
A Perfect Marriage: Print and Cyberspace
Americans increasingly research their health and health-related questions in cyberspace, as do journalists, health care professionals, educators, and others who write or communicate on food safety and nutrition—as lay people and professionals alike have become increasingly comfortable with relying on the Internet as an almost instantaneous source of information. Therefore, it has become ever more important to provide reliable, credible, and scientifically verifiable information to Web users. The IFIC Foundation Media Guide has risen to the challenge.
The Media Guide also contains short primers on topics like managing food allergies, diet and weight management, functional foods, foodborne illnesses, pesticides and the environment, and food biotechnology and other new technologies. All of these primers are clearly written in easy-to-understand language. The Media Guide can be used to find quick food facts, food statistics, and additional resources. Research on consumers’ attitudes toward biotechnology, functional foods, and other current issues is also referenced, with further information waiting at ific.org.
Food for an Information-Hungry World
Because of Americans’ current hunger for information on food issues, from the low-carb diet craze and food labeling to food biotechnology, journalists and other food safety and nutrition communicators stand to benefit greatly from this handy reference on the science behind sugars, fats, fiber, and supplements. The Media Guide has been a reliable reference for journalists and others since 1995, and can help provide understanding and a foundation for judging and communicating information about complex food issues.
In a world where both print and Web-based resources co-exist, the Media Guide appears to have taken the best from both, making the job of researching the often difficult issues surrounding food surprisingly easy—where the perfect scientific answer to a scientific question is only a mouse click, an e-mail, or a phone call away.
The 2004-2006 IFIC Foundation Media Guide is provided at no charge to credentialed journalists and can be easily ordered through ific.org or by contacting the IFIC Foundation Media Relations Department at media@ific.org.
