Explores the law and practice of food provision in institutional settings such as prisons, schools, and the military. At the turn of the century, such institutions tended to receive systematically lower-quality food products. Today, given the combined proportion of the population in schools, prisons, and the military, much of our nation’s diet is being supplied by institutional food. Yet, neither the law governing institutional food, nor the food practices of institutions, nor the consequence for individuals living in those institutions, has been adequately evaluated.

In our food supply system for optimized output, Food Safety must identify potential intentional and unintentional contaminants in the food supply and either prevent them or find and remove them after entry. Food Quality seeks to ensure that healthy, nutritious, and good-tasting foods are produced and consumed. These two problems are related, but they are also often in conflict. There is often a taste/safety tradeoff, and government regulators have strong incentives to favor safety, with long-term consequences for what we eat and the way we eat it.

Recognizes that the cornerstone of the United States food law system is information provision: people should know what they are eating. As a result, naming, labeling, and claiming are all heavily regulated by the Food and Drug Administration and by state tort law. More than fifty currently pending lawsuits involve challenges to food products names or labels, some brought by consumers, some brought by competitors. Yet, we know remarkably little about how information provision actually affects consumer beliefs and behavior. The Food Information Awareness project seeks to explain and ultimately improve the use of information policies in the law of food.