Dr Heather Benbow and Dr Lara Anderson: Culinary xenophobia raises its ugly head

Dr Heather Benbow interview on Radio National about research undertaken with Dr Lara Anderson on culinary xenophobia.

Australians like to pride themselves as having multicultural tastebuds but do we actually have 'cultural indigestion' when it comes to foreign food?

Australian linguist Dr Heather Benbow believes so, and has researched how our attitudes towards food and where it comes from can expose underlying xenophobia.

The recent campaign against Halal foods which claimed companies that register their food as Halal are helping to fund terrorism, is just one example. All too often when food poisoning scares are reported in the media, the emphasis is on the ethnicity of the food, often Asian.

Culinary xenophobia raises its ugly head

Many of us love eating in Chinatown but is Australia more food xenophobic than we think? (flickr:lukzeme )