Award details

Engaging food hypersensitive communities in citizen science

Reference	BB/W009102/1
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Julie Barnett
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Dr Ian Thornhill
Institution	University of Bath
Department	Psychology
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	33,103
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	14/02/2022
End date	30/11/2022
Duration	9 months

Abstract

There is no cure for food hypersensitivity (FH). Managing FH primarily means seeking to avoid allergens. Addressing this FSA Area of Research Interest means identifying ways in which the FSA can protect the consumer from the health risks posed by FH. One of the riskiest areas, and the most likely to cause stress and anxiety, and hospitalisation, is eating food prepared by others. Understanding the detail of how eating out encounters are undertaken, what information is sought or provided and how this is done is therefore vital. The primary route to engaging people with FH to be citizen scientists will be through our network of collaborators. The key FH charities - Anaphylaxis Campaign, Allergy UK, Coeliac UK, Allergy Action and the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation - have committed time to the project and to help us in recruitment. We also have details from a previous project of participants that gave permission to be recontacted for University of Bath research. Our experiences of conducting previous research in this area has indicated that participants with a FH are keen and motivated to be part of projects and accordingly we are confident that the proposed numbers will be achieved. In addition, recruitment and retention of project participants will be boosted by engaging citizens in a project with outcomes that are of direct and tangible benefit to themselves. We anticipate a number of benefits from citizen involvement. First citizen scientists will be motivated to provide detailed, context specific information about their experiences of ordering and eating food prepared by others. Second, it will be valuable to garner the reflections of citizen scientists about how they found the process, what they learned, and what potential do they feel that citizen science around FH has for the FSA in the longer term. Finally, it will be valuable to gather feedback from citizen scientists about the nature of the pilot project findings themselves.

Summary

Eating food prepared outside the home when you have a food hypersensitivity (FH) risks quality of life and causes stress and anxiety, because it is associated with an increased likelihood of accidental or unwanted consumption of allergens. This is a significant challenge to the FSA given that their aim is to protect the UK consumer from the health risks posed by FH. Citizen scientists with FH are ideally placed to actively engage with addressing this issue and contribute detailed first-hand observations and reflections around their experiences of eating food prepared away from the home. A citizen science approach that is compliant with the ECSA ten principles of citizen science, engaging those that by definition are motivated to avoid allergens, can provide detailed, relevant and focused information about eating outside the home encounters spanning restaurants, cafes, work places, schools, hospitals as well as at social occasions in homes eating food that is prepared by others. Engaging with experts and stakeholder organisations that are committed to improving policy and practise in this area is key to this pilot research project and their input as collaborators is foundational to deriving and addressing the aims of the project: to (1) collect key information from citizens with a food hypersensitivity about how they assess allergen risk when eating food prepared outside the home, and (2) assess the future feasibility of engaging those with FH as citizen scientists. These aims will be addressed in 3 work packages (WPs) Work Package 1 (M1-2) We will hold workshops with key stakeholders and citizens to codesign the data that the citizen scientists will be asked to collect. We have agreed with our collaborators that a citizen science team of between 75-100 people will consist of (a) people with a FH aged over 16 and (b) parents of children aged under 16 with a FH. We will seek to ensure a mix of participants in terms of nature and severity of food hypersensitivity, geographic location and socio-demographic characteristics who will be recruited through our collaborators and through existing contacts. Work Package 2 (M3-6) We will engage the citizen scientists by asking them to contribute information about their eating out experience online via their phones/tablets or PC at the time of, or soon after the event. The information designed in WP1 will be collected using software often used in citizen science settings (ESRI Survey123). They can also upload photos to accompany other information that they record. We will coordinate and support the citizen science participants throughout and offer encouragement and acknowledgement of their contributions. Reflection will be invited from 10% of the citizen scientists in short interviews. Work Package 3 (M7) We will hold an online workshop to have a dialogue with the citizen scientists to reflect and feedback on project findings. A second online workshop with project collaborators and partners will discuss the project findings, the reflections of citizen scientists on these, and what the implications are for relevant industry, policy and practitioner stakeholders.

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	Microbial Food Safety
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	UKRI Citizen Science Collaborations [2020]
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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