Conceptual apparatus analysis in international practice in relation to butter. Subject field review

The nature of the use of basic concepts on a specific issue in scientific journals affects the overall quality of the relevant information. The relevance of issues related to food security and sustainable development stimulates the study of various food products, in particular, fat, and oil products. The purpose of this paper is to study the use of basic concepts describing categories of fat and oil products in international scientific literature. The authors analyzed the use of three concepts: butter, margarine, spread. The primary literature search was carried out in the Scopus bibliographic database, the selected sources were assessed semi-quantitatively (in points) for conceptual unambiguity. The authors found that the articles demonstrate thematic and geographical diversity. Thematically, they focus on three key issues: product properties, their production and technology, consumers and markets, with the first group numerically prevailing. Conceptual unambiguity is moderate on average and extremely low in a number of sources. When comparing thematic groups of articles, it was found that in articles that consider consumers and markets, conceptual unambiguity is significantly lower. Clear geographical patterns in the distribution of conceptual unambiguity have not been established. Basic concepts are often used arbitrarily, mixed up, which reduces the quality of scientific information, disorients representatives of the production sector and complicates research and innovation activities. Russian specialists should carefully verify scientific information on oil and fat products from international journals and contribute to improving its quality.