Minimising dietary risk: the French association of salt producers and the manufacturing of ignorance

International audienceIn this article I develop the social amplification of risk framework focusing on organisational strategies that seek to to minimise or conceal certain risks, rather than amplifying them. I link this analysis to theoretical work on the social production of ignorance. I draw on data from a case study of the French association of salt producers that explores the ways in which the association with limited resources sought to counteract public health messages that salt was a risk to health. I show that the association used four main strategies in an attempt to manufacture ignorance in relation to the nutritional risks of salt: indirect communication and dissimulation, denial, diversion and undermining or intimidating of opponents. I conclude that these strategies are part of a repertoire of action which is available to many industrial organisations which are trying to counteract public health claims that their products are a danger to health. I argue that it is important to integrate studies of the social amplification and attenuation of risk with analysis of the resources and strategies used to minimise or amplify risk. I suggest that the strategies used by certain powerful actors to minimise or conceal certain health or environmental risks should be analysed more closely in risk studies