Analyzing Discourse about Safety and Efficacy of Functional Food : Using Social Constructionist Perspective toward Science

尽管已经向政府报告了一些问题，但由于不适当使用功能食品而引起的问题仍在社会科学领域进行研究。在此背景下，本项目通过分析科学专家、零售商、政府官员和大众媒体创造的多种话语，考察了功能食品的社会维度。本研究发现，一旦产品投放市场，界定食品和药品的法规类别就会受到相关行为者的不同解释，从而导致用户的健康问题。

Issues arising from the inappropriate use of functional foods are under studied in social sciences, even though a number of problems have been reported to the government. Against this backdrop, this project examined social dimensions of functional foods by way of analyzing multiple discourses created by scientific experts, retailers, government officials, and mass media. This study found that regulation categories that demarcate food and medicine are subjected to varied interpretations by interested actors once products are put in market, resulting in health issues of users.