Neal Hooker

Dr. Neal Hooker is a professor of food policy in the John Glenn College of Public Affairs, The Ohio State University. His research explores public policy, marketing and management issues within global food supply chains. He is particularly interested in how food safety, nutrition and sustainability attributes are communicated, controlled and (where appropriate) certified. These issues require special attention when considering public health and international trade impacts of different types and sizes of firms and farms and the responses of customers, consumers and stakeholders. He received a doctorate from the University of Massachusetts, a master’s from the University of British Columbia (Canada) and a Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) from Essex University (UK). Hooker has also worked at Saint Joseph’s University as the CJ McNutt Professor of Food Marketing, and as a visiting professor at the Food Policy Institute, Rutgers University, at Colorado State University and at Texas A&M University. He has published more than 70 journal articles and book chapters on the economics and marketing of food quality, product recalls, international food trade, and the demand for and supply of sustainable and functional food and drink.

Hooker is the editor of Journal of Food Products Marketing, co-edited a book “Interdisciplinary Food Safety Research” (with Elsa Murano) and special issues of journals on Private Sector Management of Food Safety and Emerging Issues in Food Safety. He served on a National Academy of Sciences/Institute of Medicine committee, which prepared a report, “Scientific Criteria to Ensure Safe Food.” He has reviewed for many government agencies, grant programs and academic journals. He serves on the Council on Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics Program Committee and has been an investigator on grants and contracts totaling more than $4.5 million.

Current research and consulting projects include; assessments of consumer reaction to information on product labels and advertisements, particularly for product and process information (fair trade, organic, natural and sustainability); differences between private label and national brand strategies (nutrition claims); approaches to describing novel/emerging information, (qualified health claims, vitamin D) and the nutritional quality of innovative food and beverage products (UK and USA). A native of England, Hooker has performed research, consulting and industry training in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Israel, Thailand, Mexico and South Korea. He has traveled extensively throughout the world, enjoying food as he goes!