Status and use of food products with health claim (FPHC) in the USA, Japan and France an anthropological perspective

Food Products with Health Claims (FPHC) are presented as a valuable alternative to pharmaceutical products. Their acceptance is believed to vary substantially from country to country according to the degree of understanding of the health content of the claims. The results of an anthropological fieldwork involving 144 US, Japanese and French respondents show that the status and use of FPHC are also driven by three well-established anthropological factors: the meal structure, the influence of medical discourses and the social representations of the body. In each country, FPHC rectify and integrate the ordinary food consumption. They are used to conform to norms influenced by culturally constructed food habits and ideals of health. Thus, cross-cultural differences in the adoption of FPHC are not due to an allegedly defective consumers' perception of the claims, but rather to different ways of appropriating these products depending on cultural orientations proper to each country.