Reproductive health: expelling toxic compounds from our (new) lives.
Cofunded by the Barcelona City Council and the Food Observatory Association.
This project of reproductive health awareness is focused on the training and dissemination of knowledge about the reproductive health effects of environmental chemical contaminants present in food. In this sense, the target population of the project will be the health sector (pediatricians, midwives, nurses and gynecologists from CAPs and Barcelona hospitals) and the population of pregnant and lactating women residing in the city of Barcelona.
The main objective is to expand and improve the information on dietary advice with emphasis on the role of the risks of environmental pollutants in the phases of pregnancy, lactation and child feeding. Within the field of reproductive health, risks from exposure to environmental toxic compounds are not part of the current information protocols for pregnant and lactating women. Given the importance of these elements in the health of women and future generations, as well as the importance of reducing the level of contamination of the Barcelona population, this project aims to promote a series of awareness-raising and health promotion actions, as well as promoting a more responsible, sustainable, adequate and healthy food consumption.
This project has as its starting point the guide “Environmental chemical pollutants present in food: Recommendations guide for pregnant and lactating women” that was carried out with funding from the Barcelona City Council in 2017, published and available on the web http: // www .ub.edu / toxicbody / guide /. Although it was formally presented two years ago in various CAPs and hospitals in the city of Barcelona, as well as in hospitals in Malaga and Granada, we are currently unaware of the use and scope of this guide among healthcare personnel and pregnant and lactating women. For this reason, an evaluation of its use will be made through an online questionnaire, and an update of the guide taking into account the results of the questionnaire.
The project, therefore, also raises a socially feminized problem. For this reason, it is expected to make explicit both in the training and in the dissemination materials that it is a responsibility that does not fall solely on women, nor in the domestic sphere, but that the problem of PTC in food consumption is a social and political responsibility that involves everyone. To demonstrate the feminization of responsibility for the problem is a transversal objective of the project.
Research team: Cristina Larrea-Killinger (Chief Researcher), Juan Pedro Arrébola (Universidad de Granada), Ruth Echevarría (Universidad de Granada), Marta Ruiz, Maria Clara de Moraes Prata Gaspar.
Estrategias y acciones para la reducción de las exclusiones de mujeres usuarias de
servicios asistenciales de alimentación.
Funded by the Barcelona City Council (18S03309-001).
Research team: Cristina Larrea-Killinger, Maria Clara de Moraes Prata Gaspar, Úrsula Verthein.
Guia de recomanacions per a la inclusió de les dones als serveis assistencials d’alimentació.
MEDFEST: MED Culinary heritage experiences: how to create sustainable tourist destinations. ODELA – University of Barcelona. Funded by the European Union (Code: 1MED15_3.1_M12_263).


MEDFEST general objective is to create or improve existing strategies relating to sustainable tourism development within the traditional MED small-scale culinary sector. Main aim is to develop sustainable culinary experiences, primarily in rural costal hinterland as a powerful tool to promote “alternative” and sustainable tourist destinations in MED space. Sustainable culinary experiences are alternative tourist food-products that are traditional, respect the local environment and local producers and appeal to the visitors desire for authenticity.
The goal of sustainable tourist offer is not just to attract new visitors but also to increse economic activity in/during the off-season, promote social development of coastal „hinterland“ rural areas and safeguard culinary heritage and awaresess raising on the importance of local produce, processing and knowledge.
Objectives of the MEDFEST project:
1. To find linkages between culinary heritage and sustainable forms of tourism
2. To design new tourist offer in the coastal hinterland and bring sustainable development in off-season months
3. To integrate MED culinary experiences in existing plans and to safeguard it as part of a comon European heritage
For more information: https://medfest.interreg-med.eu.
Research team: Joan Ribas, Jesús Contreras, Oriol Beltrán, Ferran Estrada, Camila del Mármol , Margalida Mulet, Marta Ruiz Pascua, Maria Clara Prata Gaspar.
‘Food consumption and health: impact on maternal and child health of Persistent Toxic Compounds found in food’.
Funded by the Barcelona City Council (17S05083-001).
The project focuses on training and dissemination of information about persistent toxic compounds (PTC) in the health sector, aimed at paediatricians, midwifes, nurses and gynaecologists in primary care and hospital services. Its main goal is to broaden and improve the quality of information on nutrition, including the risks of environmental persistent chemicals during pregnancy, breastfeeding and child feeding, through three kinds of actions: a) training for health practitioners (seminars); b) analysing the discourses and practices of health practitioners regarding nutritional advice (qualitative research); c) production and dissemination of educational and training materials aimed at this sector (best practices guidelines, posters and website).
Research team: Cristina Larrea Killinger (Chief Researcher), Eva Zafra, Juan Pedro Arrébola, Esther Herrera, Araceli Muñoz, Lina Casadó, Miguel Company, Andrés Fontalba, Arantza Begueria, Montserrat Fábregas, Jaume Mascaró, Oscar García Algar, Maria Clara Prata Gaspar.
Research area: Toxic Body.
Malbaratament alimentari a Barcelona: desentranyant i difonent com es produeix. ODELA. Finançat por l’Ajuntament de Barcelona (Consum responsable – Codi 16SO4463-001). IP: Jordi Gascón. Membres del grup d’investigació: Jordi Gascón, Cristina Larrea, Joan Ribas, Carlota Solà.
Confianza y responsabilidad en el consumo alimentario de las mujeres embarazadas y lactantes en España: narrativas y etnografías sobre los riesgos de la contaminación interna por CTP.
Funded by: the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. (CSO2014-58144-P).
The project focuses on the study of trust/distrust attitudes shown by pregnant and breastfeeding women towards the presence of chemical compounds (Persistent Toxic Compounds) in food, and their assignment of responsibility for the potential long-term effects of these substances on human health. The internal pollution caused by such substances has major cultural, social, ideological and financial implications.
Social agents’ discourses and practices related to mother-and-child food consumption will be studied using an ethno-epidemiological approach. On the one hand, those of health practitioners (gynaecologists, paediatricians, nurses, midwifes, nutritionists, etc.) and other experts (dieticians, pharmacists, alternative therapists, mass media, websites, etc.), support networks (relatives, neighbours, friends, associations, etc.), and on the other hand, those of pregnant and breastfeeding women.
This study aims at taking a deeper look at the social perception of risks associated with synthetic chemical substances found in food and their risks for human health. It also examines the hazard criteria for food consumption during pregnancy and breastfeeding, the dietary recommendations and guidance provided by health professionals, specialists, mass media, support networks or individual choices, as well as the variation of eating practices during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Explanatory models of the food process will also be studied: what food items are purchased, why certain items and not others, selection criteria, food preferences, avoidances and cravings, where they are bought, where they are prepared, where they are consumed, how they are kept fresh, what is shared, what is discarded.
In this study, the interplay of social, cultural, historical and financial factors in the shaping of food styles and preferences will be taken into account. Thus the project looks in more depth into the different levels of social perception of internal pollution risk, based on the role that the different social agents attribute to toxic corporeality in the construction process of human health and food. It takes into account social inequalities, cultural diversity, cooking traditions and ideological choices of women in both urban and rural contexts in two different Spanish regions: Catalonia and Andalusia. Using a comparative, qualitative and ethnographic methodology, this research hopes to yield more conclusive results on the sociocultural context of the limits to accepting risks and hazards, as well as trust and distrust in food consumption.
Research team: Cristina Larrea Killinger (Chief Researcher), Eva Zafra, Edda Marimón, Araceli Muñoz, Jaume Mascaró, Aina Palou, Lina Casadó, Montserrat Fábregas, Joan Pedro Arrébola, Miguel Company, Andrés Fontalba, Arantza Beguería, Esther Herrera.