Ethics in Food Science and Technology

Introduction to Ethics in Food Science and Technology

• Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is concerned with what is morally good/bad and right/wrong.
• Ethics deals with what is good and bad with moral duty and obligation.

Why Ethics in Food Science and Technology is Important

• Food consumption and production require ethical judgment.

Consumers

• Public interest in food now includes ethical aspects of food production like fair trade and sustainability.
• Consumers will consider if food was produced with child labor, or uses GMOs.
• Consumers will consider if producing the food pollutes the planet.

Food Professionals

• Food professionals are concerned with ethical issues from agricultural production to commercialization.
• Companies should have compliant food safety controls.
• Companies will have to consider if they will buy cheap ingredients from companies with weak environmental standards or that use child labor.

Importance of Food Ethics Education

• Needed to understand consumer ethical standards for food production and consumption.
• Needed to address public concerns about unsustainable practices.
• Needed to ensure food production complies with regulations for consumer protection and public health.
• Needed to manage ethical dilemmas and create sound ethical policies.
• Food professionals should use ethics in food science and technology to give people the "right" products that align with their moral standards.
• Technical knowledge and skills, including ethical judgement skills, are important.
• Requires the capabilities of making judgements on your own actions, and being able to defend yourself from wrongdoing.

Three Levels of Moral Problems:

• Simple Wrongdoing
• Object of Legislation
• Moral Dilemmas

Simple Wrongdoing

• The solution is evident and does not require help from ethics theory.
• Examples: using unclean food contact surfaces, expired raw materials, or food contact surfaces that aren't food grade.

Object of Legislation

• Solutions are referred to standards and laws that have been implemented by government regulatory bodies.
• Examples: using unclean food contact surfaces which leads to growth/survival of microorganisms, or excessive food additives that lead to adulteration or chemical contamination.

Moral Dilemmas

• Issues and concerns can be found in daily work that are not fully studied or covered by laws/regulations.
• Professionals can have varying opinions so they require thorough ethical decision-making.
• Simple dilemma example- Reuse of frying oil mixed with fresh oil during manufacturing of fried potato (Concern: >25% of polar compounds)
• Complex dilemma example - Use and consumption of genetically modified food; US and EU have different views on this topic, consumers are more critical while scientists are more favorable.
• Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) can be defined as organisms that have been altered in a way that does not occur naturally by mating and/or natural recombination.

Ethics and Moral Values

• Ethics is the philosophy of moral values, including the study and reflection of what is right and wrong.
• Morals refer to society's standards of acceptable behavior.
• Ethics relates to the systematic approach to morality.
• Actions are guided by ethical principles.
• The most well-known ethical principle is the Golden Rule: do unto others what you want others to do unto you.

Ethical Theories (Normative)

• Consequential Theory (Teleological Ethics)
• Non-consequential Theory (Deontological Ethics)
• Alternative Approaches (Virtue Theory)

Consequential Theory (Teleological Ethics)

• Focuses on the consequences of actions and is called consequentialism.
• Derives from the Greek words: "telos" (end) and "logos" (science).
• Weighs the Pros and Cons (advantages and disadvantages)
  • Egoism
    • It is based on self-interest. (Self → INDIVIDUAL)
    • A person is looking after his/her "BEST INTERESTS" or the best interest of another individual
  • Utilitarianism
    • Focuses on judging whether an actions will entail a more positive result than negative to everyone involved.

Non-consequential Theory (Deontological Ethics)

• Derives from the Greek word "deon" (duty).
• Duty theories are based on what people feel as obligations.
• Emmanuel Kant believed that ethical actions follow universal moral laws.
• For example- Don't kill, lie, steal, or cheat.
• Does not require weighing of "Pros" and "Cons".

Alternative Approaches (Virtue Theory)

• Character-based ethics that is person rather than action based.
• Focuses on virtue or moral character of the person carrying out an action and not at ethical duties or rules, or the consequences of actions.
  • Aristotle’s Virtue Theory
    • Virtues of character are dispositions to act in certain ways in response to similar situations; they are the habits of behaving in a certain way.
    • Good conduct comes from habits.
    • Some virtue principles are courage, justice, generosity, and sincerity.
    • Courage is a mean between rashness and cowardice.
  • Ethics of Care
    • Nel Noddings stated, "Caring is the foundation of morality".
    • Caring is a universal human attribute.
    • A caring relation (in which people act in a caring manner) is ethically basic to humans.

Ethical Theories

• Three principles that incorporate the main ethical theories: respect for well-being, autonomy, and fairness.
  • Respect for Well-being: Represents utilitarian principle.
  • Respect for Autonomy: Represents deontological principle
  • Respect for Fairness: Important to utilitarian and deontological principles; incorporates the social contract, suggesting that moral obligations depend on agreement to form society.

Ethical Principles/Matrix

• A generic ethical matrix for use in issues concerning food and agriculture which contains specifications of the primary principles for each interest group.

Terminologies

• Virtue ethics: Theories that highlight character instead of rules to determine if consequences are good.
• Morality: A system or set of ideas about right vs. wrong and good vs. evil behavior is subjective.
• Conscience: Having a commitment to morality itself, acting and choosing according to one's ability while judging an act to see if it violates commitment.
• Eudaimonia: (in Aristotelian ethics) Condition of human flourishing or living well.
• Perfectionism: A moral theory with certain states or activities of human beings, like knowledge, achievement, and artistic creation.
  • Rationalism: In Western philosophy, the view that regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge; reality has an inherently logical structure and some truths can be directly grasped.