Trust and food modernity in Vietnam

Abstract

The authors detail the deep transformation of the Vietnamese food system during the last decades, in relation with the industrialization of food production and the extension of the food market chains. The consequences are a growing food anxiety among consumers and an evolution in the process of trust building: the urban consumers still rely on their own know-how to keep their home as a safe place to eat as well as on their day-to-day personal relations with their usual retailers. But trust building has also evolved to include the trust in some stakeholders such as supermarkets rather than in public control. This diversity in the ways of building trust in food can be seen as a characteristic of modernity in emerging Asian economies.