Technology and Food: Aims and Findings of the EC FAST Programme’s Research into the Prospects and Needs of the European Food System Available to Purchase

The food industry is becoming more science‐based and consumers more conscious of relations between diet and health. The approach of 1992 will require changes in attitudes and in industry structures. Some of the findings of the European Community′s FAST programme are reported. How the food system will develop to the turn of the century and whether there are new Community‐level actions which might help it develop more efficiently are questions which are posed. Actions which promote consumer confidence and those which provide technological support to small agro‐food firms are suggested.