My Thesis Topic

I’ve found my thesis topic – nutritional labeling on food packaging. It’s everywhere and is an increasingly critical part of how people evaluate the foods they eat. How it's presented is critical in the perception of foods and nutrition in general. For such an important part of packaging, it is usually taken for granted.

I would like to do a comparative study of nutritional labeling design systems in 3-4 regions. I am hoping to have Prof. Benson help me set up the study; I took a class with him and got a good understanding of how I can make this work. I am thinking of selecting a country to represent the standards of the major global regions (these may change):
- North America: US
- Europe: Germany
- Asia: China
- Russia?, Australia? (not sure I need a fourth)

For each region, I will need to summarize the history of nutritional labeling to understand how the current systems came into being. From there, we can see where the differences are and what the implications may be. From there, I may need to do a review of some consumer campaigns that use this information to market foods.

I’m really excited about it! It channels my passion for the subject (i care about what I feed my kids, not myself) into something that can work in an academic setting. It is also relevant to my professional life in food packaging.

The best part about it is that I came up with it while sitting in a coffee shop in Amsterdam, staring at a bottle of soda, realizing that everything was just a little different. It was one of those rare ideas that is still good when sober.

I'm going to try to use the blog to capture ideas and information on the topic because, in reality, I've lost my passion for the blog. Brian is doing a good job keeping up, better than me. I'll keep trying, loyal readers.

Wish me luck.