The Food Sector: Mondelēz International in Brussels

Abstract

There are few things in life which will affect us more than what we eat every day. Eating is part of our cultural, national and personal identity. However, trust in the food industry has been severely shaken by a number of food scandals which peaked in the beginning of the 1990s. At the same time, consumer understanding of origin and manufacturing processes is on the decline. This doesn’t make life much easier for a Brussels-based interest representative of “big food”. Who are they? How and where do lobbyists who represent a big multinational food company spend their days beyond the daily combat in the cocktail trenches of Brussels? A food lobbyist must do everything possible to get his industry branch out of the corner in which public opinion intends to push it: an evil industry which poisons consumers with artificial additives and which drugs consumers with sugar, salt and fat to make them addicted to their products. This is exactly the same corner in which first tobacco and then alcohol was put. Thus, interest representatives of the food industry need to be given the opportunity for an open and honest dialogue without being silenced by outright demonisation. Ultimately, food touches all of us and is the basis of life on our planet.