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Press Releases
IFIC Board Releases New Communications Plan
Columbia, Mo. (Aug. 23, 2004) - The International Food Information Council (IFIC) has released a new plan for communicating the emerging science of dietary components for health, especially dealing with the subject of functional foods. The full documentation on the plan is available at: http://ific.org/nutrition/functional/guidelines/.
Dr. Glen Cameron, co-director of the Health Communication Research Center and International Food Information Council (IFIC) Advisory Board member, was involved with the creation of this document, which will help researchers work with the media to circulate findings about food and nutrition to the public.
According to the IFIC, “The emerging science surrounding how whole foods, food components, and dietary supplements may promote health and reduce disease risk is exciting. But, dietary recommendations from established scientific authorities change little over time due to the need to build a strong body of evidence. This contrast presents new challenges to journalists, health professionals, and other communicators who strive to responsibly relay new findings to the public amid established dietary guidance in our time-crunched world.”
The IFIC’s purpose is to bridge the gap between science and communications. IFIC disseminates scientific information on food safety, nutrition and health, working with an extensive roster of scientific experts and through partnerships to help translate research into understandable and useful information for opinion leaders and ultimately, consumers.
“This plan will help researchers work to improve the source-reporter interchange about functional foods to provide better news content,” said Cameron, who also serves as a professor and Maxine Wilson Gregory Chair in Journalism Research at the Missouri School of Journalism. “These guidelines are a great step forward for the IFIC and something that will be utilized by the HCRC on our current grants relating to functional foods and for future grant proposals in this area.”
Representatives from Purdue University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the University of Missouri-Columbia are involved with the IFIC.
For more information about the HCRC’s functional foods research, go to http://hcrc.missouri.edu/research/funct-foods/index.html.
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