Food Ethics and Professional Responsibility

Ethics in Food Science and Technology

• Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, deals with what is morally good and bad, and right and wrong.
• Food professionals need to consider ethical issues from agricultural production to commercialization, and consumption.

Importance of Food Ethics Education

• To understand consumers' ethical standards regarding food production and consumption.
• To address the growing public concern about unsustainable industry practices.
• To ensure food production complies with laws and regulations for consumer protection and public health.
• To make ethical decisions when faced with dubious ethical procedures.
• To engage in creating sound ethical policies and regulations.

Levels of Moral Problems

Simple Wrongdoing

• The solution is evident and does not require reflection with ethics theory.

Object of Legislation

• Solutions are referred to standards and laws.
• Regulated by law and implemented by government regulatory agencies.

Moral Dilemmas

• (Note: This section is not explicitly described in the provided text, but it is mentioned as one of the three levels of moral problems.)

Moral Dilemmas

• Moral dilemmas are issues and concerns that can arise in daily work, but are not fully studied and are not covered by laws and regulations.
• Professionals may have varying opinions on moral dilemmas, requiring thorough ethical decision-making.

Genetic Modified Organisms (GMOs)

• GMOs are organisms (plants, animals, or microorganisms) in which the genetic material (DNA) has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally by mating and/or natural recombination (WHO, 2014).

Ethics and Morality

• Ethics is the philosophy of moral values, studying and reflecting on what is right and wrong.
• Morality refers to society's standards of acceptable behavior.

Ethical Principles

• Our actions are guided by ethical principles.
• The Golden Rule is a well-known ethical principle: "Don't do unto others what you don't want others to do unto you."

Normative Ethics

• Normative ethics is the study of how we ought to act, morally speaking.
• It deals with questions about what is right and wrong, good and bad.
• Normative ethics is also known as moral philosophy.

Ethical Theories

• Consequential Theory (Teleological Ethics): considers the consequences of our actions.
• Non-consequential Theory (Deontological Ethics): focuses on the actions themselves, rather than their consequences.
• Alternative Approaches (Virtue Theory): emphasizes the character and moral virtues of individuals.

Consequentialism

• Consequentialism is a theory of morality that derives duty or moral obligation from what is good or desirable as an end to be achieved.
• Also known as Teleological ethics, from Greek "telos" (end) and "logos" (science).

This quiz covers the ethical aspects of food production, consumption, and professionalism in the food industry, including agricultural production, transformation, and commercialization.