Whole dissertation for MA

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Chapter 1: Introduction
“By focusing on a set of commonplace consumption practices – food shopping, cooking,
eating and drinking – we can begin to think about a whole set of contemporary social and
cultural issues”
(Bell and Valentine, 2006; 3)
Why study food intolerances and allergies?
Food allergies and intolerances have been described as the new epidemic by some media
sources (Pemberton, 2010; BBC, 2001). It is estimated that 5-7% of adults and 1-2% of
children have been diagnosed with food allergy in the UK (British Nutrition Foundation,
2002; Food Standards Agency, 2007) and it is reported that 20-30% of the UK population
believe they have some form of food allergy or intolerance (Food Standards Agency,
2007). Food intolerance and allergies can have a significant impact on the individual’s
health. In extreme cases, symptoms can include anaphylactic shock and are life
threatening, and even in less severe cases, symptoms can considerably reduce the quality
of life for the individual concerned. Over the past five years there has been a substantial
rise in awareness of food allergies and intolerances and this has led to “a growing media,
scientific, commercial and policy interest in food allergies and intolerances” (Nettleton et
al, 2009; 648). But how can a geographical analysis of food intolerances and allergies help
understand the impacts of this ‘new epidemic’?
Food allergies and intolerances affect the individual’s life at many levels, from
the changes that they experience in their body, how they gain knowledge about what their
illness signifies, to the ways in which they utilise shopping space. ‘Consumption plays a

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critical part in the production of our identities’ (Valentine, 1999; 491), it is ‘a social
process whereby people relate to goods and artefacts in complex ways’ (Jackson and
Holbrook 1995; 1914). In regards to food, the types of food you eat, the quantity of food
that you eat, where you eat and where you buy your food from and whether it causes
pleasure or anxiety all contribute to the construction of identity (Jackson and Holbrook,
1995, Bell and Valentine, 2006). Our identity then influences the ways in which we
interact with space (Mansvelt, 2005), for example, a food intolerant or allergic individual
may make their decisions on what food to buy and the skills they use to shop based on how
the foods affect their health and body. This will therefore change the practices they use in
the utilisation of the space and as a result these spaces can become points of contestation
and stress for food intolerant and allergic individuals when safe foods cannot be found.
Understandings of the influencing factors on the experiences of the food intolerant and
allergic individual can benefit from geographical analysis, in particular geographer’s
conceptualisations of the body, space and shopping practice.

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The Research
“How do food intolerances and allergies affect personal navigations of food shopping
space?”
My research question will aim to discover how individuals with food intolerances and
allergies navigate food shopping space and what shopping practices they employ in order
to ensure their diet excludes their problem foods. For example, whether and how they read
food packaging, how many shops are visited and how they make their food choices. In
order to gain a greater understanding of what contributes to the decision making process I
will be looking at how individuals obtain information and gather knowledge about their
food intolerance/allergy as well as how they learn how it affects their body. Both these
processes of identity formation will be central to understanding the decisions the individual
makes when navigating food shops due to the lack of work done on food intolerance and
allergies, and the variations in and between intolerance and allergies.
Research Questions
1. How do individuals use information about food intolerance and allergy?
This first question will aim to explore what information individuals use to help them gain a
better understanding of their illness and how they use that information. There is a wealth of
information about food intolerances and allergies available and this information can be
confusing, contradictory and sometimes judgemental. With no clear and universal
definition for most allergies and intolerances, this maze of information can often create
confusion in the individual’s definition and understanding of their own intolerance or
allergy. Without a clear understanding of the causes and limitations of their illness this has

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the potential to impede the shopping process for food. Therefore, understanding how the
individual uses information, if they use it at all, will be important in understanding the
shopping practices they develop.
2. How do individuals develop knowledge about the effects that their
intolerance/allergy has on their body?
This question runs parallel with the first research question, and addresses the personal,
embodied experiences and knowledge of being intolerant and allergic. It will look at how
individuals gain an understanding of the limitations and boundaries of their food intolerant
and allergic body. Such as, how it affects their health, how much of the allergen they can
tolerate, what foods to avoid and when to take risks. It will also look at the ways in which
the embodied experience of being food intolerant and allergic influences shopping practice.
If the individual is self-diagnosed as they may rely more on the experiential knowledge of
their body to develop their identity as food intolerant and allergic and help them navigate
food shops.
3. What are the shopping practices of the food intolerant/allergic individual?
The final research question will build upon both of the previous questions and explore how
the information of intolerance and allergy and the embodied experiences of ‘being ill’ are
constituted through the utilisation of food shopping space and shopping practices. It will
explore the practices and strategies the individual develops to maintain a healthy body, for
example, finding foods that are safe, the use of the supermarket store layout, the change in
values and ethics of consumption and the use of product packaging and labelling
information.

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Chapter 2: Methods
Methodology
In order to gain the best understanding and view of what influences the shopping
practices of food intolerant and allergic individual I wanted to get a rounded view of the
experiences, learning processes and opinions that are involved in the decision making of
shopping practice. In order to get this perspective I felt that it was important that the
research and the methods emphasised the individual as a thinking being with different
experiences, subjectivities, values and opinions. To achieve this I drew on approaches to
the individual used by humanist and cultural geographers (Johnston, 1994; Johnston and
Sidaway, 2004). This type of approach was important given the ways that food
intolerances and allergies range in their manifestation as well as the ways in which each
individual may choose to deal with their illness, depending on other contributing factors in
their life. As a result of taking this approach, the methods used had to allow me to gain in-
depth insight into each individual’s understandings, opinions, experiences, and knowledge
about food intolerance and allergy and their shopping practices. Therefore qualitative
methods such as interviews and participant observation were the most suitable where
quantitative methods such as surveys and questionnaires were not (Cloke et al, 2004).
Each of the research questions has been structured to create a natural order in terms
of the epistemologies they seek and the methodologies they use. The first two research
questions were created in order to ensure that a sufficient background and understanding of
the individuals learning experiences and subjectivities towards their intolerances and/or
allergies, was established. Interviewing was specifically chosen as the method for these
questions as it offered the chance for participants to explain and explore the complex and
contradictory experiences with information and the corporeal experiences of food

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intolerance and allergies (Kitchin and Tate, 2000), as well as the mundane everyday
experiences of being intolerant and/or allergic (Valentine, 1999). Interviews also create the
opportunity to talk about the complexities involved in being food intolerant or allergic
without the worry of causing any distress to the participant due to the sensitive nature of
the topic. This may have been a problem if focus groups had been used.
In comparison to the first research questions, the third primarily addresses
practised epistemologies (Laurier, 2010; Miller et al, 1998). Previous work by
geographers, on consumption habits and shopping practices, has regularly and successfully
used observational methods (Miller et al, 1998; Colls, 2004, 2006; Gregson and Crewe,
1994) as it is one of the only ways in which to directly collect data on human movement
and habits. Whilst interviews can provide information on shopping practices, participants
are drawing from memory and the data is not as reliable and threatens the validity of the
research. This problem was demonstrated in my research; participants would describe their
shopping routines during the interview and then when they were in the shopping space they
found they could explain a great deal more, just from being in the space. An understanding
of the ways in which each participant moved around the store and interacted with food
products was only realised when the individual was in the shopping space carrying out the
activity.
Sample
The research required a very specific sample as it focuses on the experiences and
shopping practices of a specific demographic; food intolerant and allergic peoples
(Bryman, 2001). Also, due to the in-depth data I collected and the time scale I had for
completing the research and dissertation I used a relatively small sample of eight
participants. I debated carrying out interviews with professionals such as doctors and

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retailers to gain a multi-faceted view of food intolerance and allergy but due to the size of
the project and the methodological approach, I felt it was best that I focused on the food
intolerant and allergic.
I was very aware of my own positionality as a food intolerant person when carrying
out the recruitment for the sample, in terms of not being judgmental about what types of
intolerances and allergies were included so that the sample was as non-biased as possible
(Longhurst, 2010). For example one participant, who offered to volunteer, was unsure of
whether he would be of any help as he perceived that his shopping practices had not
changed much since he had had his food intolerances. I decided that it would have been an
abuse of my power as researcher and an unrealistic reflection of the population of food
intolerant and allergic peoples if I excluded him from the study for this reason. This
participant went on to provide a great insight into the different ways some food intolerant
peoples shop.
The sample was recruited from my home area of South Shropshire. This was
mainly due to the financial and time limitations I had with regards to carrying out the
research, as well as presence of established connections that allowed me to gain access to
participants within the time frame that I had. Participants were scattered throughout South
Shropshire with the majority coming from one local town and others from other major
towns and outlying villages. South Shropshire is a rural area and this therefore had an
impact on the study as there are less major supermarkets within a short distance, the
nearest being a half an hour drive away, in Shrewsbury. This meant that participants often
shopped locally.

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Access
The hidden characteristic of the food intolerant and allergic population, and the
uneasiness people have when talking about their illness, made accessing participants
problematic. In order to maximise my chances of finding volunteers to participate in the
research I adopted two recruiting methods, advertisements and gate keeping (Valentine,
1999). I highlighted places that would most likely be frequented by food intolerant and
allergic individuals, using my pre-existing knowledge as a food intolerant individual,
putting advertisements in wholefood cafe’s and shops. Adverts were also displayed on
local bulletin boards and supermarket notice boards. I also used two gatekeepers, a
nutritional therapist and a speciality whole food caterer, who had direct contact with food
intolerant and allergic individuals. Both gatekeepers handed out a flyer (See appendix) to
anyone potentially interested in taking part in the research (Valentine, 1999). The
advertisements and flyers used the same succinct overview of research and brief bullet
points of the ethical guidelines I would be working under, which acted as a ‘credible
rationale’ (Bryman, 2001;116) to help maximise the response. Those who contacted me
with an interest in volunteering were then given an information sheet which contained a
more detailed description of the research, including how the participant would be involved
and how their needs would be met (Valentine, 1999). This guaranteed that potential
volunteers had been given enough information to make an informed decision about
whether they wanted to participate. Gatekeepers were also given this information sheet to
ensure that they were informed about the research themselves. By using more than one
gatekeeper and more than one recruiting method there was no dependency and reliance on
one access point (Cook, 2005).

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Interviews
A total of one interview was completed with each participant, originally two
interviews had been planned, the first interview to address the first and second research
questions and the second to address the third. The second interview would have taken
place after the accompanied shop. But during the data collection, it became more sensible,
in terms of the limited time the participants had to take part in an interview, and more
appropriate to combine the second interview with the first. Each interview was conducted
with the aid of a set list of topics to discuss (Valentine, 1999; 118). This created the
flexibility I needed to explore the areas of interest and importance in each topic, especially
as each participant had such different experiences even, for example, if they had used the
same information and shops (Bryman, 2001). Conducting the interviews this way created a
more natural conversational structure to the interview and gave the participant more choice
in how, and if, they wanted to talk about the more sensitive topics such as the impact the
symptoms had on their lives. I had initially created an interview structure of questions but
this proved to be impractical for use due to the vast differences between each participant.
As Longhurst points out, ‘an interview is a social interaction and there are no fast rules to
follow and you cannot predict what happens’ (2003:121). I did however make sure I had a
full interview structure of questions with me in case the interview did not flow and a
rapport was not made (Longhurst, 2010), but this was never needed.
Each participant decided where they wanted their interview to take place, as the
location of the interview can have a great impact on the atmosphere and success of the
interview (Valentine, 1999). For example the interview location can influence the rapport
as well as the power relationship between participant and researcher (Cloke et al, 2004;
158). I wanted to make this relationship as equal as possible so that the participants were
made to feel included rather than just being used as an information source. Most interviews

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took place in the participants own homes, one taking place in a cafe and another taking
place at my own home, so the interviews were very informal and relaxed.
Participant Observation
The accompanied shops were organised at the end of each interview, and occurred
a maximum of two weeks after the initial interview, depending on the availability of the
participant. I found that most participants shopped sporadically when they had the time
rather than doing a big weekly shop, as I was expecting. This meant that the shops I
accompanied were not necessarily large food shops, as planned. I did not insist that the
shop had to be a big weekly shop, just because more data could be collected, as this would
have been manipulating the results and would not have been a real representation of the
individuals shopping practices. Instead, most participants talked through why they would
buy or not buy certain products even if they did not have to buy them. This is not as ideal
as the participant was drawing from memory rather than demonstrating the practices
through action, but due the time constraints on the data collection it was not possible to
join participants on more than one shopping trip.
Due to these limitations it was vital to make sure that the form of interaction used,
during the one observation, was not prompted and biased by me, the researcher. The type
of interaction used in observational methods can be detrimental to the data collected,
especially when observing an everyday practice such as shopping (Kitchin and Tate, 2000).
Studies by Colls (2004; 2006) and Miller et al (1998) use a form of interaction which is
based on the preferences of the individual. For example, if the participant wants to talk
during the observation then the researcher follows on. I adopted this type of interaction as
it seemed to be the most natural way in which to carry out the observation. All participants
spoke about their practices as they were shopping and on some occasions going down

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aisles or going to shops they would usually use on other shops. By using this form of
interaction, where the participant had control, I had to be careful to not lose direction and
purpose of the accompanied shop. Brewer (2000) advises that in order to maintain the
balance between insider and outsider, and the control of the research, the researcher must
adopt personal qualities that identifying with the participant whilst maintaining
professional distance. I was very aware of this throughout the accompanied shop, making
sure I maintained this balance.
Ethics
From as early on as the recruitment stage, I made potential volunteers aware of the ethical
guidelines (Cloke et al, 2004) I would be following, by including brief explanation on the
flyers and information sheets that were handed out. These guidelines were explained in
more detail when volunteers contacted me expressing a wish to take part in the research
and then again before the interviews, as they were included in the consent form each
participant signed (see appendix). This listed a description of their involvement and a list
of my responsibilities as a researcher, such as the provision of confidentiality and
anonymity. Another important ethical problem I had to consider was my own personal
history with food intolerances and allergies and the possible influence it could have on my
research. In particular, whether I revealed my involvement to the participants or whether I
did not. Rachel Coll’s research on ‘fat bodies’ (2004; 2006), in which she interviewed and
observed the shopping practices of overweight women, demonstrates that disclosing your
personal involvement with the research topic you are studying helped build a good
relationship and rapport with participants (2006; 535). But she found that, at some points,
her personal embodied identity created distance between herself and the participant, as the
participant compared her body to theirs (2006;535). I found that participants were much
more comfortable, and open with me, when they were aware that I had experienced similar

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problems. Therefore, I decided to be open about my history with intolerance and allergy.
This seemed to give the participant confidence that I understood and empathised with their
experiences.

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Chapter 3: Navigating the Literature
Food intolerances and allergies create an opportunity to offer new insights into a range of
geographical concepts and debates. For example, studies of the food intolerant and allergic
consumer could give new dimensions to previous studies and conceptualisations about the
practices of consumption, expand explorations into the politics of the body and broaden the
boundaries of spatial influence in health geographies. But one of the unique aspects in the
study of food intolerances and allergies is that it does not just interact with these areas of
literature separately but connects them all together in various relationships, and it is this
that creates the most exciting new dimensions for the current conceptualisations that are
associated with these specific bodies of literature. I am going to briefly discuss the main
conceptualisations and bodies of work that my research will address and contribute to and
the different ways in which it can draw new relationships and links between these areas of
work and concepts.
Food and Health
There are many different ways to study food as ‘it is simultaneously economic, political,
cultural, social, biological and geographical’ (Johnston et al, 2000; 272), and is not a
subject matter that fits neatly into any conceptual boundaries (Johnston et al, 2000). But,
food intolerances and allergies are essentially health problems and this situates the study of
food in a unique position with regards to health and the body; between being a health risk,
in terms of the food allergens, and vital to individual health. The most basic and
fundamental role of food is its nutritional purpose to maintain the functioning of the human
body.
“As individuals, we need sufficient, safe, nutritious food for healthy life.”
(Tansey and Worsley, 1995; 49)

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We rely on ‘the biochemical compounds found in foods’ to ‘sustain our bodies biological
processes’ (Tansey and Worsley, 1995; 49) and this allows us to function efficiently in
everyday life. But this view of food is rarely given any precedence in the social sciences,
maybe due to the mundane and seemingly unproblematic nature of this everyday
functioning and its association with the sciences. Instead, in the social sciences, the role of
food in human health has been viewed in terms of the regulation and control of body
weight and the secondary illnesses that result from being an unhealthy body weight.
‘Food consumption is a common way in which humans regulate or control their
bodies’ (Tansey and Worsley, 1995; 70) and in contemporary culture the most common
way in which this is practiced is in the regulation of body weight. In modern society and
media, the slim and muscular body is viewed as the ideal, healthy and the most attractive
body type whereas overweight bodies are viewed as unhealthy, ugly and undisciplined
(Bell and Valentine, 1997; 29&36). This idea is enforced by government agencies, such as
the World Health Organisation and The Department of Health, who warn that being
overweight causes serious health problems including Diabetes, Cancer and heart disease
(WHO, 2011; Department of Health, 2011). Geographers have also highlighted that
everyday places and spaces, such as the seats in the car and public transport are designed
for specific body shapes and play an important role in the exclusion of the fat body and the
reinforcement of the ideal body (Bell and Valentine, 1997; 36).
Regimes of body of control, in the form of limiting food intake and unhealthy
foods, are the most popular way in which people obtain and maintain the ideal body
(McElhone et al, 1999; Williams et al, 2007) and are a common feature of the Western
world (Germov and Williams, 2009). For example studies done in the UK found that five
of the most common ways in which individuals controlled their body weight and health
through food regimes was to increase their intake of fruit and vegetables, limit fried foods,

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limit fats, eat breakfast and avoid sweets (Germov and Williams, 2009). Those who do not
practice this form of body control and our larger than the ideal body weight are considered
to be to blame for their ‘unhealthy body’ (Longhurst, 2005). These food regimes have
parallels with those of food intolerant and allergic individuals, as foods are reduced or
avoided. But, unlike food intolerance and allergy, health is not necessarily the driving
factor for these food choices instead the driving factor is the quest for the ideal physical
appearance, rather than a healthy body. Therefore the emphasis moves away from food and
health and towards the social and cultural, structural and post-structural factors that
produce and reproduce the body ideal (Germov and Williams, 2009).
The focus on the overweight body in studies of food and health is also apparent
within Geography. For example, geographer’s have used post-structural approaches to
deconstruct fat politics (Colls and Evans, 2009; Longhurst, 2005) and have discussed the
use of anti-obesity politics as a form of bio-politics (Evans, 2010; Evans and Colls, 2009;
Guthman, 2009). The few studies that do exist, in which food and health are viewed to be
mutually constitutive, are concerned with food deserts (Wrigely, 2002; Wrigely et al,
2004). But in these studies the emphasis is on access to food rather than the impact of the
food itself on health. Geographers have indirectly touched on issues of food and health in
the study of alternative food networks and the return to quality (Parrott et al, 2002; Watts
et al, 2005). These studies look at the increase in consumer concern about the quality of the
food products available and the development of shorter food supply systems in reaction to
the adverse health effects that have become associated with the modern diet. For example,
the increase in risk and occurrence of salmonella and E.Coli poisoning and the heightened
public concern about GM foods (Roberts, 2008). But these health risks come as a result of
flaws and failings of food production rather than the food itself.

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Food intolerances and allergies offer the potential to develop the conceptualisation
of food in relation to its more mundane and everyday functioning in human health in a way
that none of the previous conceptualisations have done. Whereas previous work on obesity
and food has become more focused on the external body due the strong links with body
image and the pressures of western society, this research will return to the biological
functioning role of food to human health. This conceptualisation of food is strongly
implicated in matters of the body; human health is, after all, a description of a particular
state of the human body. Therefore food and health cannot be studied without
understanding the conceptualisations of the body itself.
The Body
The body has been a main point of interest within human geography over the past
20 years and has fuelled discussion in a range of different fields in geography. For example
feminist geographers have critiqued the gendered and sexualised body and the mind-body
dualism (Rose, 1993), cultural geographies have explored the ways in which the body and
space are mutually constitutive and construct each other (Grosz, 1992; Nast and Pile, 1998)
and health geographers have used ideas of embodiment to gain a better understanding of
the geographies of illness (Hall, 2000; Crooks and Choinard, 2006). This has produced
multi-faceted approaches to studying the body and its importance in society. For the
purpose of this study it will be important to understand the body in two ways; in
conjunction with the conceptualisation of food and health and the body as functional and
biological, and the body as social constructed and understood through the places and
spaces it inhabits, such as food consumption spaces. The basis for these conceptualisations
of the body can be found in its philosophical roots.

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Foucault viewed the body in anti-essentialist terms, as a historically and culturally
specific entity which is shaped and reshaped by different forces acting on it (McNay, 1992)
such as social codes, laws, norms and ideals (Grosz, 1993; 199). For example, in terms of
health, the body becomes medicalised through the provision of healthcare and ‘clinical
supervision’ (Grosz, 1993) which, in simple terms, creates a social code about what
constitutes a healthy body and gives people the responsibility to maintain their own health.
In Foucault's theorisation this provides a standard of normalisation against which bodies
who do not fit into the norm can be highlighted (Grosz, 1993; 199). Phenomenologist’s
Husserl and Merleau-Ponty viewed the body in a different light. They saw the body as
essential to ways in which we perceive the world and the objects in the world. They stated
that we experience the world through embodiment where the body is the ‘concrete agent of
its perceptual acts’ (Carmen, 1999) due to its ability to feel and experience sensations such
as pain and warmth. The body can only experience its own corporeality (Carmen, 1999).
Whereas Foucault’s approach looks at the body in terms of the ways it is inscribed upon by
‘social law, morality and values’(Grosz, 1993; 196), Husserl and Merleau-Ponty focus
more on the internal experiences of the body when perceiving the external world. It is
important to take both these approaches into account when studying the body as they both
look at different elements of the production of the body and therefore they both have valid
significance. Whilst we are all physical bodies with physical reactions which differ
individually we are also social and political bodies produced through our understandings of
and constraints of the society we live in.
Research by Rachel Coll’s (2006; 2004), on bodily bigness and clothes shopping,
challenges the negative conceptualisation of emotions within human geography and argues
that ‘bodily bigness’ should be viewed as an emotional way of being that is about the
‘multiple, simultaneous and often contradictory experiences, feelings, narrations and

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sensations of ‘being big’” (Colls, 2006; 530). She states that this conceptualisation of the
body is equally as important as the ways in which bigness is represented ‘in terms of
medical, moral and political contexts’ (Colls, 2006; 532). She has demonstrated how the
‘feeling body’ can be useful when understanding women and their relationship with their
body and their shopping practices when buying clothes (Colls, 2004). Health geographer’s
have also emphasised the
‘internal geographies of the body’ stating that ‘the way that the body is made and what it
is made of...the very stuff of the body that can be (un)healthy and impaired’
(Hall, 2000; 22).
They have also challenged the separation of both these approaches and argued that it is
important to understand the body as biological and social if academics are gain a true
understanding of the body (Hall, 2000; Crooks and Chouinard, 2006).
It will be important to consider both these approaches in my research. Due to the
focus on the body in terms of human health and food nutrition, Husserl and Merleau-
Ponty’s theorisations offers the perspective of how bodily experiences, such as symptoms,
influence perception of the external environment. For example the information and
shopping practices they may use. But as the construction of the information and shopping
space is by people who may have different experiences, knowledge's and opinions, it will
be important to gain some understanding of how this influences the users utilisation and
practice through to the implementation of Foucault's theorisations. Another importance of
applying both these approaches is their different but equally significant impact on the
individual’s identification as a food intolerant and allergic person.

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Identity
Much like the approaches to the body there is more than one approach to studying identity.
One of the most common contemporary approaches used within geography is ‘what should
be loosely termed post-structuralism’ (Valentine, 2001; 167) which emphasises ‘the
contingency of knowledge claims and recognises the close relationship among language,
power and knowledge’ (Barnett, 1998, 380). Post-structural approaches view identity as
unstable and constantly renegotiated by position in space and culture (Panelli, 2004;
Hubbard et al, 2002). This approach has allowed geographers to see identity as multiple
and fluid, and connected to all aspects of society and culture.
“People have multiple and fluid identities which are formed not only as a reflexive position
of self, but as a process which occurs in relation to others, who are distant from the self.
Processes of identity formation involve creating meaning in the space of one’s physical
body, which also involves a consideration of how our bodies are interpreted and located in
wider discursive and material contexts.” (Mansvelt, 2005; 80)
But academics (Jackson, 2000; Philo, 2000) have criticised this approach for
dematerialising geography, focusing too much on ‘less-than-tangible, often-fleeting spaces
of texts, signs, symbols, psyches, desires, fears, and imaginings’ (Philo, 2000; 33). I would
argue that there is much evidence to prove this to be an unfair judgement. For example,
Health geographer’s (Moss and Dyck, 1999, 2002; Butler and Parr, 1999) have applied the
work of Poststructuralist, Foucault, to understand more about how people with chronic
illness negotiate their identities and “what it is to feel and to resist oppression in particular
places, discursively and materially” (Moss and Dyck, 1999; 373). Furthermore, there has
been a great degree of work on consumption and identity (Gregson and Beale, 2004;

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Jackson, 1999), which has used post-structural approaches, stressing the important of the
rise of the commodity.
“Consumption is a medium through which people can create and signify their identities.
Theorisations of post-modern society suggest consumers are enmeshed in a world of
commodities in which decisions about who one is and how one should be (in what spaces)
are becoming increasingly complex.” (Mansvelt, 2005; 80)
These studies have looked at how people develop identities through their consumption
practices (Mansvelt, 2005) or how they consume according to an already existing identity
therefore performing their identity (Gregson and Rose, 2000). Both these studies connect
with ‘the more ‘thingy’, bump-into-able, stubbornly there-in-the-world kinds of ‘matter’
(Philo, 2000; 33) that some academics have stated that post-structural approaches lack.
I would argue that identity literature needs to address how material, embodied
experiences and the ‘less-than-tangible’ texts, signs and symbols are constituted and
simultaneously produced in the formation of identity. This is where food intolerances and
allergies may offer a new perspective as their identity will be influenced by their primary
body experiences but may also be influenced by health information and text. Also their
food consumption may have a solidifying impact on their identity or may contribute to
confusion about identity. My research will address this gap and explore the relationships
between the different forces at play in identity formation.
Shopping Practice
Understanding how individuals shop, the practices they use and the reasons behind their
shopping practices is essentially the heart of my research. But, whereas issues of
consumption have become well studied in geography and the social sciences, academics
have rarely paid attention to shopping practice (Miller et al, 1998). Gregson et al argue that

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this lack of attention says more about the ‘subjectivities of academic knowledge producers
than it does about the significance of shopping per se’ (2002; 597). Despite the lack of
acknowledgement, academics have argued the importance of studying shopping practices.
For example Everts and Jackson state that “theories of practice have the ability to focus
attention not only on the way we conceive and experience places but also on how we ‘do’
place” (2009; 932). Gregson argues that the study of shopping practice can reveal deep and
embedded issues of space and consumption:
“(a) The meaning of shopping is not just about objects and their connections with social
relations, nor is it solely about constituting desiring subjects, but that its meaning(s) are
constituted through shopping practices, modes of shopping which are themselves
constitutive of shopping spaces; (b) the meanings invested in shopping space(s) are
potentially unstable, and that these are constituted only through practice; and (c)
theoretical accounts of shopping need to take seriously not just the importance of the
constituting subject, but also the spatialities of subjectivities.” (Gregson et al, 2002; 599)
Shopping practice includes routines implicitly associated with the body; “forms of bodily
activities, forms of mental activities, ‘things’ and their use, a background knowledge in the
form of understanding, know-how, states of emotion and motivational knowledge. ”
(Reckwitz, 2002; 249). Miller (1998) argues that different shopping sites have different
practices and experiences attached to them, and even sites which seem to be similar will
have different practices of use which ‘appeal to certain forms of identification rather than
others’ (1998; 24). For example he discusses how shopping centres manage diversity and
provide a domesticated environment in order to exclude those ‘who do not have the
appropriate degree of familiarity’ (1998; 112). Whereas Gregson’s (2002) study of charity
shoppers found that different shopping practices were used within the same shopping site,
depending on the individual. Some individuals used the charity shops to bargain hunt and

22
some used them for the type of clothes they sold and this led to the implementation of
different shopping practices. Similar results were found in work by Coll’s on the shopping
practices of ‘fat bodies’ (2004), she found that women’s shopping practices were different
depending on their views towards their own ‘fat body’.
Whilst these studies all give interesting insights into the importance of
understanding shopping practices, there is very little work that has approached the
shopping practices used when buying food. There has however been research that has
addressed issues of labelling, in particular, within geography the focus has been on quality
labelling (Parrott et al, 2002) and GM labelling (Herrick, 2005). Outside of geography
there has been more interest in food intolerance and allergy, for example, Agricultural
studies have investigated the labelling preferences of food allergic consumers (Voordouw
et al 2009; Mills et al 2007) and medical studies have explore the coping strategies and risk
taking practices that individuals use to manage their allergy (Sampson et al, 2006; Monks
et al, 2010). But, this research has tended to stick primarily to food allergy due to the
uncertainty that surrounds the existence of food intolerance. There has however, been a
large amount of work done outside of academia. Recently, the Food Standards Agency has
released a range of research reports specifically concerning food intolerances and allergies.
The reports look at a range of topics including research on consumer understandings of
food labelling (FSA, 2010a, 2010b), the provision of allergen information for non pre-
packed foods (FSA, 2010c). This research has provided the most individual focused and
comprehensive research into the food shopping practice of both food intolerance and
allergy.

23
Chapter 4: Navigating Information
Defining Allergy and Intolerance.
There is a universal scientific acceptance and proof of the causes of food allergy;
“if you have a food allergy your immune system produces abnormally large amounts of an
antibody called immunoglobulin E (IgE), which fights the “enemy” food allergen by
releasing histamine and other chemicals. These chemicals cause the symptoms of an
allergic reaction” (Food Allergy Initiative, 2011). Food allergy can therefore be easily
diagnosed by a GP with a blood test which measures the IgE antibody levels in your blood
or by a skin prick test (Sampson, 2005). In comparison, there is no clear understanding of
food intolerance and multiple theories have been published about the primary causes. It has
been suggested to be the result of toxic contaminants, the pharmacologic properties of
foods such as caffeine, or a metabolic or idiosyncratic disorder of the individual in
question such as a lack of digestive enzymes (Burks, 2006). But none of these theories
have been found to have any sound scientific and medical basis (Gibson, 2011). One of the
only ways in which medical discourse is in agreement about the existence of food
intolerance and the difference between food allergy and food intolerance is in the different
manifestation of symptoms. Whilst many of the gut symptoms are the same there are some
identifiable differences. The symptoms of food allergy have a very quick onset, similar to
other non-food allergies, and include respiratory and dermatological reactions as well as
gut reactions (Patriarca et al, 2009) whereas food intolerances have a much slower onset,
with symptoms being gut reactions and not showing until hours or a day later.
As a result of the lack of understanding of the pathology of food intolerance, within
the medical literature, the term food intolerance is ‘used to describe a range of food related
symptoms of varying etiology’ (Zopf et al, 2009) and is used as a loose term to describe a

24
reaction that is “non-immune mediated, having instead enzymatic, pharmacological, or
unknown causes” (Nettleton et al, 2010; 291). This vagueness in scientific and medical
discourse was reflected in the definitions that food intolerant participants gave, of their
illness. Each participant struggled to give an exact definition and, in correlation with
medical discourse, the only way in which they were able to differentiate was by the
manifestation of their symptoms.
“I would guess it is probably an intolerance in that the reaction is much slower. Erm but
erm.. but yeah it sets off my immune system but its slower. But I don’t know if I go back to
it, it could be a quicker reaction because I haven’t had it for so long.
(Kerry, Intolerant to Gluten, Wheat, Dairy and fructose)
“They are not allergies in so much as I come out in an anaphylactic shock or anything like
that. It just causes me diarrhoea and excess flatulence. I can sort of detect quite audible
gurgling and fermentations of whatever going on and then inevitably the day after is not
going to be nice.”
(John, Intolerance to Citrus fruits, Onions, strawberries, anything from the cow)
The parallels between medical and scientific discourse and understanding of food
intolerance and allergy and lay public understanding does not come as a result of the public
accessing the research themselves, only one participant cited academic research as one of
her sources of information. Instead, participant’s primary access point of information was
their local general practice and hospital.

25
GP versus the Patient
In each local, geographical area there are specific sites which are designated as
spaces of medical care, such as the local GP practice and the hospital. Despite the growing
influence of information outside of the traditional medical sphere (Parr, 2002) we still
associate medical authority and knowledge with these traditional sites of health care. The
GP practice ‘is often the first port of call for many people seeking help for a range of
problems’ (Nelson and Ogdon, 2008; 1039) and we rely on their expert knowledge to
diagnosis and explain our health problems. The GP practitioner ‘acts as an interface
between the scientific world and the lay public” (Nelson and Ogdon, 2008; 1039) and as a
consequence their views reflect those of the medical discourses. The lack of understanding
and agreement about food intolerance and allergies carries over into the GP practice and
invariably causes disruption to the conventional doctor/patient relationship as the
professional medic loses their power of knowledge (Wetherall et al, 2001). Participants
reported how the lack of information, explanation and time given to them by doctors left
them feeling negative about themselves and completely unsupported.
“I had eighteen months of fighting basically and it makes you feel like a hypochroniac,
makes you feel like you are being awkward, erm asking too many questions and taking up
too much of their time and it makes you feel very negative about yourself”
“But when you are the one with the problem and you don’t understand it and you have
never heard of it and don’t know what to do about it, it’s very hard to stand in front a
specialist and say well I think you are wrong because you don’t actually know what you
are talking about”
(Lillian, Intolerant to Gluten, Wheat and Dairy, allergic to raw potatoes and carrots)

26
Participants were left feeling disempowered, due to the expectation of gaining information
and help from their doctors. The lack of diagnosis, or misdiagnosis, left them with a
continually declining health and quality of life. Participants described how their illness left
them with worrying weight loss, mild depression and kidney infections, in some cases
participants described how they were scared to go outside due to the worsening of their
bowel symptoms. This was worsened by the inability to implement appropriate shopping
practices due to a lack of knowledge about their intolerance or allergy, and lead to further
disempowerment. The combination of negative experiences associated with the symptoms
of the illness and the lack of access to information through traditional orthodox health care
led to participants to take more control of their health care and actively sought information
elsewhere, outside of the traditional, orthodox medical sphere.
Going Alternative
The way in which we receive health care is broadening as we no longer solely use
primary, orthodox care. The use of complementary and alternative medicine has increased
in demand due to a growing dissatisfaction with traditional, orthodox medicine. One of the
main reasons for this change in provision of health care is the way in which the practice of
complementary and alternative medicine treats patients holistically and gives more value to
patient experience (Clarke et al, 2004; Wiese et al, 2010). In the case of food intolerance
and allergies this approach to health care proves to be more beneficial. Participants
reported that they gained most of their knowledge and understanding, of their illness, from
alternative and complementary practitioners such as nutritional therapist’s and herbalists.

27
“The specialist people it’s their interest and their focus so you are going to get the
information you need. The doctor is under pressure with time and it’s not his speciality”
(Liz, Gliadin intolerance)
“That was the biggest difference between seeing some alternative and paying for it, so
because it’s private you get more time anyway. They are asking you questions and you
think well why is that related but it is because they are trying to get an overall picture.”
“It is a real comfort to talk to somebody like Sarah [nutritional therapist] who stands
beside you and says well actually I really think this is the problem and we will work at it
together. That is a huge comfort and that you are not whisked in and out in ten minutes.”
The provision of time given to listen to all their problems and experiences, along
with more detailed information and explanations, and a greater respect for the impact and
role of food and diet, created greater ease in the transfer of information from health
professional to patient. It also created an equal relationship where both parties worked
together. Participants reported how this made them feel more respected and allowed them
to gather more information and gave them the opportunity to ask questions if they did not
understand. These experiences are strikingly different when compared to encounters with
orthodox practitioners. For example, one participant, Lillian, reported that orthodox
doctors had dismissed her suggestions that it was diet and food that was affecting her
health.

28
“they said it wasn’t Crohns, it wasn’t Diverticulitis and it wasn’t Celiac and that’s, well
this is when I got so upset with the specialist because they were just saying ‘well its none of
those things I don’t know what’s causing your persistent diarrhoea’ and I said well I think
it’s got something to do with the food that I eat and they said ‘no that won’t be it that's not
an explanation’ and I said I’ve kept records and I know that some things upset me but I’m
not sure which ones they are and they said ‘no that's not it, that is not sufficient to cause
the problem’”
In comparison to alternative practitioners, orthodox doctors showed no appreciation for the
patient’s corporeal understanding of their body and regarded the patient as being incapable
of having any knowledge of the signification of their symptoms. One participant described
how she was made to feel like a hypochondriac, and as a consequence started questioning
herself, whereas her alternative therapist made her feel supported This demonstrates the
inherent power that the GP practitioner can hold in the patient’s production of knowledge
about their health. It also demonstrates the difference in equality in practitioner/patient
relationship between alternative and orthodox healthcare.
These experiences demonstrate a shift in what we expect from healthcare. They
suggest that the patient’s positionality in the health care situation is changing and they are
becoming more involved in the knowledge production of their body and health. People are
actively seeking alternative health care and alternative sources of information because they
are dissatisfied with the knowledge they are being given in other health spaces. This
reflects a shift that has been recognised within health geography literature (Kearns and
Moon, 2002; Cummins and Milligan, 2000), a shift from ‘philosophies and practices of
collective care and treatment’ to a more active and ‘individualised health culture where

29
health promotion and illness prevention are key, and where health is seen as primarily the
responsibility of individual human subjects” (Parr, 2002; 77). One of the reasons for this
change has been attributed to the easy access to more information, via the internet, books
and magazines.
Becoming your own doctor
Individuals are taking more control of their health and search for information, in
order to attach meaning to the illness. Thanks to the increasing and constant availability of
information, of which sociologist Manuel Castell has termed ‘the information age’ (1996),
the lay public have been given the opportunity to become more knowledgeable about
health (Hartzband and Groopman, 2011). The most significant of these available
information sources is the internet. The internet offers a range of organisational websites
which display varying facts obtaining to the causes of food intolerance and allergy, as well
as guides telling people how to cope with them on a day to day basis. Websites such as the
Coeliac Society provide individuals with clear, reliable, tailored information that could be
accessed quickly and whenever the individual needed it.
“It’s [Coeliac Society website] very informative and it tells you pretty much all you
need to know and it gives you what’s going on medically but it also tells you how to live
with it on a day to day basis. I mean I don’t feel like I have a problem, I don’t feel like I’m
ill or anything because I’ve got all the information I need to manage it.”
(Emma, Coeliac disease)
But it is not the availability of factual information that has proved to be the main
benefit of the internet; instead it is the access to a completely different type of information
which is found in the form of online peer groups and forums. This offers the individual the

30
chance to read other peoples stories of food intolerance and allergy, how it has affected
them, how they have been diagnosed and treated and how they have developed practices
that enabled them to cope with their restricted diet on a day to day basis. Even if the author
of the story, of which they were reading, did not have the same intolerance or allergy the
information offered provided to be vital to the participants understanding of their own
illness and formation of identity.
“I would read somebody’s story and go ‘oh crumbs that's exactly the same as Agnes and
Emily, particularly Emily.”
(Eleanor, Intolerant to additives and cow dairy, two children are also intolerant)
Identity is essentially formed through the recognition of difference in comparison to an
‘other’ (Hall, 2000; 17). The peer groups and forums allowed the participant to compare
their experiences with those of others who had managed to get diagnosed and as a
consequence were more comfortable in their identity as either food intolerant or allergic. In
other forms of information that were used, this difference was obtained, not in comparison
to the experiences of another person but through a list of indicators given in a description
of a specific illness. I would argue that the presentation of this information is the
determining factor in its usefulness. Whilst a list of indicators may be helpful it is
disembodied and dehumanised and therefore harder to relate to. A list of symptoms and
causes strips food intolerance and allergy down to the mechanical workings and signs of
the body. It is separated from the feelings of pain, discomfort and stress that are
experienced as a result of the illness. The information on peer groups and forums does not
separate the mechanical and emotional and it is this that makes them more relatable and the
‘other’ more distinguishable. This challenges the analysis of post-structural approaches to
identity as dematerialised (Jackson 2000; Philo, 2000). Difference is still obtained through

31
signs and symbols of text but it is by no means ‘dematerialised’ and ‘less than tangible’
(Philo, 2000;33).

32
Chapter 5: Navigating the Body
Understanding the food intolerant and allergic body
Academics have argued that there is a dual understanding of the body, the biological
(material) and social (representational), but in the past it was thought that these two
interpretations of the body were ‘firmly oppositional’ (Hall, 2000). At its theoretical roots
the body was conceptualised as either, the production of discourse and the result of
different formations of power and knowledge in society by post-structuralist thinkers
(Foucault, 1995; Wetherell et al, 2001) or as a lived entity that experiences the world
through embodiment where the lived experience of the body is the basis of our being in the
world (Carmen, 1999; Williams and Bendelow, 2002). Recently, health geographers (Dorn
and Laws, 1994; Moss and Dyck, 1999; Choinard et al, 2010) have argued that the binary
opposition of the socially represented body and the lived, experienced body needs to be
critically revaluated. I would argue that the represented body and the lived body need to
be approached as relational and constitutive of each other.
The embodied experiences of being ill proved to be essential for participants in
their ability to assimilate knowledge about their illness and therefore the formation of
identity. They relied heavily on their own judgements and knowledge of how their body
functioned when ill, in terms of their reactions, compared to when their body functioned
‘normally’.
“I had worked it out by myself about the red wine and the allergy test confirmed it. The
other thing I picked up and it really didn’t click in my mind and it should of done, is the
pork because when I ate that, because I like pork and gammon joints, and I used to think
‘oo I’m a bit full up this is hard to digest’ and it didn’t really click. For some reason I

33
picked up on the red wine and probably the wheat, and bread, but I didn’t pick up on the
yeast. I knew things were going on but it was actually the test that summed it up.”
(Marge, Intolerant to Wheat, Orange, Pineapple, Pork, Yeast and Sugar)
“I had had mild discomfort and then one night when we were away I had a vegetarian
lasagne and I thought I was dying in the night, it was like having a heart attack with all the
pain. Then it went then a few weeks later I made something with peppers in and then that
was instantly obvious and then cucumbers, the skin, you just know.”
(Jane, Intolerant to Wheat, Peppers and Onions)
The awareness of how their body was reacting and when it was not, allowed them to self
diagnosis, especially when healthcare information could not. Participants described this as
a ‘learning experiences’ and every participant clearly stated that it was these experiences
that taught them the most about their intolerances and allergies, and how to live with them
in an everyday context. Where written medical information can provide people with
indicators and facts so that their illness can be defined and classified under a particular
term that is socially universal, embodied experiences allow the individual to gain a deeper
understanding of their illness that allows for a more complex but effective navigation of
space.
Trial and Error
Participants gained an understanding of their ill body through a process of, what they
described as, ‘trial and error’. This involved the participant discovering how food
intolerance or allergy manifested in them, through a process of testing their body and the
boundaries (Longhurst, 2001) of their ill body. This was either done purposely with the use

34
of exclusion and reintroduction diets or by mistake with the participant becoming aware of
their body dysfunctions through a series of cause and effect experiences with foods.
“It is really trial and error. I think the main thing to do is not to go all out and change
everything in one hit , change one thing at a time and see if you can point one thing at a
time and narrow it down to a particular food group or a particular additive and then try
and eliminate that from your diet. If you are feeling better that’s a bit of a clue that you
might have pinned something down but unfortunately the only way to check is to give
yourself that particular thing again.”
“I suppose that has been the key thing really, has been experimenting with foods to see,
because I have been through endless ways of eating to sort of find what works. But in a
way has been interesting experience because its quite a learning experience.”
This practice of trial and error reflects the phenomological idea of the lived and sensuous
body and emphasises the importance of the material and biological body. Most
geographical work on the body has concentrated on the social construction of the body in
space and has overlooked the role of the material body (Longhurst, 2001). Valentine
argues that “our understandings of our bodies and our attempts to manage them are based
not just on visual information but also other sensual information” (2001; 30). This sensual
information can only be gained through experience (Rodaway, 1994; Merleau-Ponty,
2005), whereby senses gather information about objects and space, in this case food. For
example one woman explained that:

35
“Dairy and Wheat were the first things I started with and sugars because I still had this
on/off kidney thing. So sugars got cut right out because I knew if I had any sugar, like table
sugar, straight away my kidney would be off and I suppose the factors in me were what my
kidneys were doing, what my gut was doing and what my ovarian cyst was doing. Because
I was getting pain, sort of the first, building up in the first couple of weeks of my cycle the
build up with the oestrogen levels being higher it would build up and I would get more
pain and then I wouldn’t get any for the next couple of weeks. So I would go through this
two week pain thing. But when I stopped eating dairy and wheat, that pain stopped so I
know that it was either not growing anymore or it was starting to shrink.”
The build up of these trial and error experiences are used to assimilate knowledge about
the boundaries of the new ill body, to determine what foods are causing pain and how
much of the food needs to be consumed before the body experiences pain. This in turn
gives the participant the corporeal knowledge needed to control, regulate and maintain the
healthy body.
Taking Risks
The control and regulation of the body was mainly mediated by the participant’s embodied
knowledge of the physical effects of foods and the amounts of foods. Depending on the
type of allergy or the type of intolerance and whether it was an allergy or intolerance,
determined whether the participant would take risks when shopping. It also determined
what they deemed to be a risk. For example, Emma, who is medically diagnosed with
coeliac disease, when asked whether she ever took risks stated that:
“Emma: No
Interviewer: Is it more serious than a general gluten intolerance?

36
Emma: Yeah, I don’t know. I know that with Coeliac it flattens the vilia in the stomach
lining and so everything whooshes through because the boy wants to get rid of it. For me, I
get quite ill, so no I don’t cheat or take risks.”
(Emma, Coeliac Disease)
As a result of the potential impact of eating the slightest bit of gluten, Emma is very strict
with her diet. During the accompanied shop she explained that in order to avoid any
reaction and make food safe for herself she would cook from scratch ‘because it’s easier’.
This approach differs from other participants who were able to take a small risk
occasionally, for example Lillian, who has a variety of intolerances and allergies, stated
that:
“Risking doesn’t feel so much of a problem now because I can cope with the odd thing I
just can’t keep on. So I think it’s a fair deal. So therefore I have a deal with my body now,
Monday to Friday I am really quite strict but if I want some chocolate cake I have some
because then it makes it more bearable. Because if you say I just can’t have it, you have
got to enjoy living as well”
For Lillian allowing herself to eat chocolate cake, a food which she has learnt she can
tolerate to a certain degree, is depicted as a treat, rather than a risk. This risk taking acted
as a positive emotional release from the restrictive diet of the food intolerant and allergic,
which the participants had significant negative emotional associations with. This is was
because most of the common allergens are found in foods that are ‘tasty’ and ‘naughty’
such as cake, ice cream, chocolate and biscuits.

37
“It was pretty depressing because you have no puddings, no cake, and when you are
seriously avoiding sugar that's no alcohol and I can’t have fruit juice anyway.”
This reflects the psychological, social and cultural factors that play a major part in our food
choices (Tansey and Worsley, 1995). Academics argue that psychological factors have a
bigger influence in food choice than the nutritional value (Rozin et al, 1986; Leigh-Gibson,
2006). Eating is often experienced as pleasurable and rewarding and the practice of eating
certain foods changes our moods (Barthomeuf et al, 2009), this is referred to as comfort
eating. In food intolerant and allergic individuals this emotional experience is often
lacking, and food choice is reduced to a decision based on the impact on their health. As a
result indulging in foods for pleasure were sidelined and deemed as risky. The pleasurable
effect of eating certain foods was a common reason for participants to take risks with their
food but it did not always end successfully.
“How do you know when to take risks?
How much it appeals to me, like the coffee cake which I took the risk with and regretted it
and I will never do it again. It was just sat staring at me and I just looked at it and thought
‘yes’....
I was letting myself have a bit much and one day I had a bit of coffee cake and boy did I
know about that, not just for days, it set it all off. It was as if my system was saying that is
really going a bit far. It took weeks before it settled down, I am being very good, but again
not worrying about it if in soups.”

38
For Jane the appeal of the coffee cake in taste overcame her need to control her diet and
maintain a healthy body, but the consequences acted as a trial and error experience that
acknowledged that the need to gain strict control on her diet was more important than
gaining pleasure from food. The pleasurable experience of eating food was not completely
prevented by diet of the food intolerant and allergic, some participants successfully
included some risky foods into their diets, in small quantities and others found that they
could eat ‘tasty’ foods due to the growing availability and choice made to them by free
from foods. But even then some participants described how they would avoid free from
foods because they were filled with ‘other stuff’ that participants had learnt they were
sensitive too. The knowledge gained from these embodied experiences proved to be a
useful form of information when developing shopping practices and coping strategies
around their allergy and intolerance.

39
Chapter 6: Navigating food shopping space
Finding Foods
One of the principle problems revealed in the shopping practices of food intolerant and
allergic individuals is finding safe foods to eat. Some participants had more difficult than
others and the degree of difficulty seemed to be constitutive to the types of food
intolerance and allergy, and the severity of the reactions experienced. One participant,
Lillian, has a variety of food intolerances and allergies and as a consequence she is
excluded from more foods therefore making it more difficult to find safe foods to eat.
Whereas another participant, Liz, who has a Glaidin intolerance is only excluded from
gluten, and has access to a greater variety of foods, and explained that she does not have as
much trouble finding foods. This is not to say that Liz’s intolerance does not create any
difficulty when trying to find foods that are safe. Glaidin is a protein found in Gluten and
Gluten can be found in the majority of the food products that form the basis of the western
diet, even in small quantities and traces. For example, during the accompanied shop Liz
explained that she had a particular problem finding soups she could eat.
“’Soups are a nightmare for me, because you would think they wouldn’t have gluten in
them but most of them do, but it must be worse for you because they all have milk in’. She
then found a tin of soup that she could have, she said she has got to know which types of
soup and which breads she can have. She explained that when she visited a friend she had
a common problem in that her friend always put tinned soup in spaghetti bolognaise and
she always chose the tinned soup with gluten.” (Field notes, Liz’s shop, Glaidin
Intolerance)
This kind of problem and coping strategy was common amongst most of the participants,
but in order to navigate the problem of finding safe food, each participant needed to have a

40
secure knowledge of their intolerance or allergy so they could identify which specific
foods they needed to avoid. This could only be achieved by developing their identity as
food intolerant or allergic through the use of the information and experiences. For
example, Liz knew which soups she could and could not eat from the labelling, and had
also learned which brands to trust and which to avoid thus allowing her to bypass the time
consuming label checking practice. But she needed to know which exact foods she was
intolerant too before she could identify which foods to avoid in the labelling. This allowed
her to established brands and foods as being safe. Once these safe foods had been
established the food intolerant and allergic consumer then tended to stick to that brand
because it was easier than being inventive and trying others and then having to check
labelling all the time. But this did not completely remove the problem of finding foods.
Another problem participants’ faced when trying to find foods to eat was shops not
stocking the food products they could eat.
“I went to the Co-op for a bolognaise sauce and normally I can buy the original
bolognaise sauce and its fine but there was this whole array, Mediterranean vegetables,
extra vegetables, extra onion, extra garlic, extra this extra that and no original
“I can’t always find what I want. The co-op is very good here for stocking gluten free stuff
but I know that there are certain brands out there that I would quite like to have and can’t
hold of, even round here and at Sainsbury’s I can’t them, which is a bit of a pity. I get quite
a bit on prescription as well, I get flour and bread and pasta on prescription.”
(Emma, Coeliac disease)

41
Figure 1: Coeliac Society
Guide
Two participants, Liz and Emma, used a particular piece of information to combat this
problem; the Coeliac Society Food and Drink Directory. Both Liz and Emma are intolerant
to Gluten and are members of the Celiac Society, a specific group that provides advice and
guidance to those with Coeliac disease and those who
have to follow a gluten free diet. The Food and Drink
guide contains lists of products that are suitable for a
gluten free diet. These products are organised by
supermarket so that you know which products are sold at
which shop. Liz explained that she made sure she had the
guide with her when she shopped, as well as a list of the
foods she had to avoid, which she had also received from the Celiac Society, as she was
never sure whether things were gluten free or not. Emma stated that she made sure that she
updated her guide every time they released updates. Unfortunately the majority of the
participants did not have access to this type of invaluable information and had to learn how
to shop according to their dietary requirements over time, developing different practices
through experience.
Movement
Most food shops, in particular large food retailers, have a well established understanding of
shopper travel behaviour, for example a shopper is assumed to walk up and down the aisles
of the store following the store layout (Larson et al, 2005). Therefore, stores are set out to
guide the shopper systematically around the shop with different sections for different
classifications of foods. In large food retail businesses the market research sector will often
carry out research to determine consumer behaviour by tracking the shoppers choice and

42
order of purchase and their movement throughout the store, allowing the retailer to
optimise their sales through organisation of the store layout (Michon et al, 2005). Research
has shown that the paths shoppers take through the shop are complex (Yada, 2011) and that
the pattern the shopper takes will be determined by the shoppers goals in terms of the
acquisitions they intend to make (Hui et al, 2009). The movement of food intolerant and
allergic shopper showed how they are excluded from a large proportion of food products
that supermarkets sell, which occasionally led to the shopper deciding to shop elsewhere,
such as in wholefood shops where more food is suitable for their needs.
Those participants who chose to shop in large retailers such as The Co-op,
Sainsbury’s and Marks and Spencer’s commonly missed large sections of the supermarket.
“There are whole aisles that I don’t even bother to go down and its tins of this, jars of that,
sauces of that and I just don’t even look at them because I think there is nothing for my
family in that aisle, moving on. So I am in and out just about as fast as you can get.”
“As we moved past the creams and yogurts she said that she didn’t buy any of them at all.
We then went down the bread aisle and cakes and the participant said she did not buy
bread and that when it came to cakes she did not buy those either because they were
processed and full of sugar and preservatives and they also all had wheat in them.” (Field
notes, Marge’s shop, Intolerant to Wheat, Orange, Pineapple, Pork, Yeast and Sugar)
Depending on the intolerance or allergy, the participants would miss different sections.
Also, all the participants had chosen to avoid preservatives, additives and processed foods
with high sugar content therefore increasing the amount of foods they were excluded from.
Due to the layout of the supermarkets and the grouping of foods together, such as the

43
cakes, breads and dairy products, the shopping experience was much quicker as they could
avoid whole aisles. The time spent in food shopping space was reduced further by
systematic and specific movements through the aisles that contained safe foods. This was
achieved by awareness, gained through trial and error experiences or memorisation of
product contents, of which products on which aisles were safe. This systematic movement
allowed the shopper to minimise the time consuming task of checking packaging to make
sure the product was safe. Participants still briefly checked the packaging on products they
routinely brought, but did not have to check so thoroughly.
“We moved to the aisle which contained all the pasta sauces and the participant said ‘they
usually have their own brand ones’ referring to the Co-op’s own range. She then looked at
the labelling of a few products briefly before deciding which to buy. She then picked up a
tinned chilli which was on sale and said she usually bought these as she knew she was fine
with them, but she continued to briefly check the packaging.” (Field notes, Liz’s
accompanied shop, Gliadin intolerance)
Due to the embodied knowledge of which specific products they could and could not have,
and the risk associated with trying new products participants rarely browsed food products.
There was less risk involved in sticking to what they knew and it was quicker and more
convenient when it came to moving around the shop floor.
Back to Basics and Ethical consumption
Not all participants choose to shop in supermarkets. Two participants, John and Kerry,
choose to completely avoid large supermarket shopping. Instead, both participants partake
in food consumption that would be seem be in line with indicators of ethical consumption,
they both shop in local, independent food stores therefore supporting their local
community, and there was a particular concern for quality, another indicator of ethical

44
consumption (Barnett et al, 2005). But for John and Kerry there is a different motivational
element involved which gives a different dimension to previous studies of ethical
consumption. Whilst, health is thought to be one of the motivations for consuming
ethically, it has only been considered to be as a result of increasing risk of food bourne
illnesses such as E.Coli and Salmonella in mass food production systems (Roberts, 2009)
and the heavily processed ways food is produced in these systems (Lawrence, 2008). But,
for both John and Kerry ethical consumption practices benefited their health in terms of the
reduced risk of a food intolerant reaction and ease of shopping, rather than the risk of
getting an illness like E.Coli. For example on the accompanied shop with John, no
packaging or labelling was read because nearly all of the foods bought were basic and
unprocessed. This meant that unlike other participants, John’s shopping practices were
much less focused on his food intolerances.
“They both [John and his wife] explained that they went to the markets to buy homemade
cake, vegetables, meat and fish. I asked them why they decided to do this instead of
supermarket shopping and they said that the main reason was because they liked to
support local businesses and they also found that the food was of higher quality and better
value for money, rather than for John’s intolerances.” (Field notes, John’s accompanied
shop, Intolerance to Citrus fruits, Onions, strawberries, anything from the cow)
By using ethical consumption practices and avoiding pre-prepared, processed foods, all
John needed to do to avoid the trouble foods (onions, citrus fruits, anything from the cow,
including dairy) was avoid the original forms of the foods.
Kerry shop’s included more reading of packaging and labels because her ethical
consumption practices were slightly different to those of John’s. Rather than avoid pre-
packed foods she chooses to buy foods that are either organic or locally produced. Whilst

45
this meant she had to check packaging, she was more comfortable trusting it due to the
types of food she was buying. Organic foods go through a much more rigorous testing
regime, in terms of quality and contamination, in order to claim the organic status, and
locally produced foods are from smaller, and less complicated, supply chains (Morris and
Buller, 2003). This means that they are less likely to be contaminated.
Labelling
Food labels and packaging are the primary source of information informing the consumer
of the contents of food products, allowing them to judge whether a product is safe and how
risky the product is in accordance with their tolerance levels. When checking to see
whether a product was safe participants firstly looked for the ‘Allergy Advice’, the ‘Made
in factory handling’ and the ‘May contain traces’ claims (see figures 6.1 and 6.2). They
then, nearly always, checked the ingredients list as it was more reliable than checking the
claims, which sometimes tended to display misleading and confusion information.
Producers are currently legally required to list all the ingredients on food labels and clearly
list all ingredients that are derived from any of the 14 recognised allergenic foods (cereals
containing gluten, crustaceans, molluscs, eggs, fish, peanuts, nuts, soybeans, milk, celery,
mustard, sesame, lupin and sulphur dioxide and sulphites) (Barnett et al, 2011). But,
producers are not currently legally required to display allergy advice claims and there are
no set restrictions defining the levels of allergen needed to be in a product to qualify a
claim to be displayed. Most participants had had some experience with misleading claims
and had developed the practice of double checking the ingredients list to ensure the product
was safe.

46
Free from foods were introduced to provide more reliable and safe versions of
foods that the food intolerant and allergic consumer would have normally been excluded
from. For example, dairy free milks such as rice milk, oat milk and soya milk and free
from cakes and biscuits. These products, in comparison to other products, will state very
clearly on the front of the packaging what they are free from, making it easier for the
shopper to distinguish which foods they can have without having to pick everything off the
shelf and read the back of the packaging. Unfortunately, most participants reported
experiencing reactions from contaminated or un-correctly labelled free from products. For
example one participant explained that on one occasion she had been misled by packaging
on free from foods.
“I mean on the Booja Booja truffles they have like this gluten free, dairy free kind of stuff
on there and I think most of their truffles are but I bought my husband some with Wine
which was ginger wine which is made from rye alcohol and I think the labelling had got
confused, I was going to contact them actually, because I think what they have done is they
have done a a standard label and changed the ginger or orange on it and not changed the
others and checked it because all the others [other products by the brand] are gluten free,
it’s just this one.” (Kerry, Intolerant to Gluten, Wheat, Dairy and fructose)
Figure 6.1: Food Label 1
Figure 6.2: Food Label 2

47
This type of labelling confusion and contamination might seem minor but for food
intolerant and allergic shoppers it can be extremely dangerous and cause illness for weeks
after they had innocently eaten the food product. Most participants had determined whether
a free from product was safe and reliable through trial and error, rather than blindly
trusting packaging and had learnt to stick to products which they were aware, from
experience, were safe. As food intolerant and allergic consumers have enough trouble
finding foods in general, they should be able to trust food products that claim they are free
from allergens and should not have the added stress of risk of contamination or misleading
labelling. Most of the participants who took part in this research had food intolerances
rather than a life threatening food allergy and because of this the trial and error is not a
danger to their life. But, participants stated that they there needed to be universal standard
to allergy advice claims so that they could trust that an item was safe and would have the
confidence to try more foods and reduce the time they needed to spend checking labels.
But until then, they would continue to be vigilant with their label checking and stick to the
products they trusted.

48
Conclusions
The shopping practices of the food intolerant and allergic consumer are heavily habitual
and strategic right down to the singular products that are selected for consumption. Each
shop that is visited and product that is bought has been assessed either through the study of
information on the labelling or by trial and error experiences. But these practices are
determined and dependent on the knowledge production and understanding of the food
intolerant and allergic body. This knowledge and understanding is obtained through
processes of information gathering which are achieved through secondary sources such as
healthcare professionals, online organisational websites, online peer groups and forums,
books and magazines, and the individual corporeal experiences of symptoms. The
assimilation of this information allows the intolerant and allergic individual to develop the
secure identity that is needed to navigate food consumption space and select safe food
products.
The medical and scientific discourses which form the basis of the information given
by orthodox healthcare professionals, who are the first access point in the search for
information, are vague, contradictory and judgemental. This causes confusion in the
formation of the secure identity and therefore the ability of the individual to implement
successful shopping practices. As a consequence individuals are taking a more active role
in their healthcare by searching out alternative practitioners who provide a more holistic,
time generous and respective form of healthcare. This is more suited to the food intolerant
and allergic and allows an ease in the transfer of information and assimilation of
knowledge. Individuals are also specifically utilising the internet to access more tailored
information and other intolerant and allergic individual’s stories. These stories offer

49
support and a humanised and embodied form of knowledge which has been shown to
provide great assistance in securing identity.
Where secondary information is used to gain background, factual knowledge in
order to understand the food intolerance or allergy, the development of personal corporeal
knowledge is vital if the individual is to gain a secure identity. This is due to the extreme
variations in the manifestation of food intolerance and allergy. Individuals gained this
knowledge by testing the boundaries of the ill body through processes of testing and
gauging tolerance through trial and error experiences. This type of knowledge is
particularly important in cases where the individual does not access secondary information.
Without the assimilation of this embodied knowledge the food intolerant and allergic
consumer cannot judge when to take risks on products, or understand whether a product is
safe or not. This type of knowledge is constantly being collected as the food intolerant and
allergic consumer navigates new food products.
The assimilation of this knowledge, along with the restrictions of the food
intolerant and allergic diet, creates the strategic movement and manipulation of food
shopping space. Through the factual understanding of food intolerance and allergy,
provided by secondary sources, consumers can understand and relate to information given
on packaging. Through the collection of embodied knowledge the consumer can judge
whether labelling is to be trusted, whether risks can be taken and what diet they need to be
following. Without the niche knowledge of what it means to be food intolerant and allergic
the consumer cannot navigate food shopping spaces which are designed for use by non-
intolerant and allergic population. These practices demonstrate how the consumer
manipulates and adapts shopping space in accordance to their own particular needs when
shopping spaces are not predominantly designed and constructed to optimise their

50
consumption requirements. Without the shopping practices that each food intolerant and
allergic individual develops they would not be able to maintain the exclusionary diet that
ensures their good health and welfare.

51
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