Abstract:
Food literacy has been advocated by many recent researchers as an individual or society’s ability to better
interact with their food and nutritional needs. These researchers maintain that current illnesses resulting from
our lost ability to maintain good health by interacting sensibly with our food intake, can be ‘reclaimed’ if
individuals and society developed improved food literacy levels. In this research a South African definition for
food literacy as a construct, with its inherent sub-components and related domains, were developed using the
Delphi methodology. Delphi is viewed as an excellent method to seek consensus or agreement from a sample
of experts in a particular field. This Delphi application consisted of two primary rounds where a stable consensus
definition for food literacy in South Africa was achieved. Between 76 and 71 eminent food experts from five
occupation groupings (five experts fell out between round one and round two) participated in the Delphi process.
This group identified six sub-components and agreed that they adequately supported the content of what food
literacy entails. An additional third round was later used to ascertain the food experts’ opinions regarding the
inclusion (or uncertainty or exclusion) of 204 specific food literacy scale items, as part of the larger research to
develop a food literacy measurement instrument.
