The SAGE Encyclopedia of Food Issues. Edited by Ken Albala. Los Angeles: SAGE Reference, 2015. 3 vols. acid free $395 (ISBN 978-1-4522-4301-6).

A wide variety of academic disciplines have recognized “food studies” as a legitimate area of study. Sociologists, historians, psychologists, nutritionists, media studies scholars, scientists, and culinarians—to name a few—have all published authoritative works in the realm of food studies. Because food studies encompasses such a broad range of topics, and the language of food studies varies from discipline to discipline, publication of a print food studies encyclopedia is an ambitious undertaking. Dr. Ken Albala, world-renowned food studies scholar, has taken up this challenge.

Albala is Professor of History and Director of the Food Studies Masters program at the University of the Pacific. He has authored or edited over twenty three books—several award winners—and several food studies book series, including Food Cultures around the World and the Rowman and Littlefield Studies in Food and Gastronomy series. His course Food: A Cultural Culinary History, is now available through The Great Courses website. Albala’s areas of expertise in food studies is food in history, medieval and Renaissance cooking in particular. Over the course of his research and publishing career, however, Albala has made hundreds of contacts around the world whose work span the entire spectrum of food studies. The list of contributors selected to collaborate on this publication include professional food writers, chefs, academics, and representatives from nonprofit organizations all thoroughly qualified to write on these topics. Amelia Saltsman, Signe Rousseau, Ken Smith, and Ulrica Söderlind are just a few of the established and up-and-coming food studies authorities who contributed to this encyclopedia.

This three volume encyclopedia includes nearly all topics under the food studies umbrella. In his introduction, Albala states that “this work is . . . intentionally inclusive and global in orientation, covering not only the food issues we hear about in the news, but what goes on behind the scenes. . . . It also includes . . . how religion influences food choice, the various different nutritional systems around the world, and how we communicate about food” (xxx). To help readers make sense of the resource, Albala provides a “Reader’s Guide” section that organizes the entries into sixteen general topic categories that span agriculture, gastronomy, the environment, religion, media, food processing, food safety, health, food science, hunger, labor, and the food industry. The index also gives readers more clues to find information on common topics, such as foodservice professionals.

The SAGE Encyclopedia of Food Issues, while comprehensive and authoritative, may prove overwhelming for high school students or undergraduates not enrolled in food studies-specific programs. Albala’s The Routledge International Handbook of Food Studies (Routledge, 2013) is a more concise, coherent work that provides brief histories of food studies within several academic disciplines, research methodologies and ideological or theoretical positions within those disciplines, resources for research, and suggestions for further studies. Equally valuable is Pilcher’s The Oxford Handbook of Food History (Oxford University Press, 2012) that addresses historiography, disciplinary approaches, production, circulation, and consumption of food.

The SAGE Encyclopedia of Food Issues would be appropriate for academic library collections that support food studies programs.—Rachel Wexelbaum, Associate Professor / Collection Management Librarian, St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, Minnesota