Food science and technology across europe 15. Scientific knowledge base and differences in quality

Abstract

This paper contributes with some insights into scientific knowledge base in food industry at the regional level in Europe 15. We argue that science production by universities is not enough to create a scientific knowledge base. An additional requirement is counting on some standards of quality for being useful to firms. We explore this line of inquiry by first examining the regional distribution of food science across Europe and its relationship with the production of technology in the European food industry and then by focusing on the role of quality of FS&T and its determining factors. The methodology relies on rolling correlation and panel data models. Our sample consists of about 13 thousand papers in the field of “Food Science & Technology” (FS&T), covering the period from 1998 to 2004. The results show that only regions with high-quality published papers on food science present a significant relationship with the production of food technology. Furthermore, funding, research tradition and specialization are the main factors affecting the quality of FS&T, while the demand for science from the region does not play any role. The paper concludes with some policy implications for strengthening the regional knowledge-base economy in the food industry.