Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Acceptability of genetically modified maize by young people

Acceptability of genetically modified maize by young people Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how label information may affect the acceptability by young consumers of a food produced by genetic engineering methods. Design/methodology/approach – A popular snack derived from maize (corn chip) was presented with five different labels (“organic corn”, “conventional corn”, “product that contains genetically modified (GM) corn”, “product that contains GM corn approved by EU”, “non‐classified corn”) to 229 university students in Greece in order to taste it. Findings – The results obtained showed that the GM label evoked a deeply rooted negative attitude as more than half of participants (63 per cent) refused to taste even a single piece of the product. The product labelled “GM but approved by EU” was viewed as more credible but still 28 per cent refused to sample. The conclusion was that although the feeling of trust increased considerably when the label message was supported by a certifying authority, a large proportion (almost one third) of participants refused to taste a product that had been approved by the EU for nearly a decade. Practical implications – This result demonstrated in an emphatic way a degree of phobia concerning GM food and the importance of carefully worded labelling. Originality/value – The attitude of consumers after direct experience with a GM food product had never been reported for Greece and these findings may serve as an exploratory tool for further investigations on GM food related attitudes. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png British Food Journal Emerald Publishing

Acceptability of genetically modified maize by young people

Download PDF
10 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/emerald-publishing/acceptability-of-genetically-modified-maize-by-young-people-P3SZTWFJ7o

References (36)

Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Emerald Group Publishing Limited. All rights reserved.
ISSN
0007-070X
DOI
10.1108/00070700810858664
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how label information may affect the acceptability by young consumers of a food produced by genetic engineering methods. Design/methodology/approach – A popular snack derived from maize (corn chip) was presented with five different labels (“organic corn”, “conventional corn”, “product that contains genetically modified (GM) corn”, “product that contains GM corn approved by EU”, “non‐classified corn”) to 229 university students in Greece in order to taste it. Findings – The results obtained showed that the GM label evoked a deeply rooted negative attitude as more than half of participants (63 per cent) refused to taste even a single piece of the product. The product labelled “GM but approved by EU” was viewed as more credible but still 28 per cent refused to sample. The conclusion was that although the feeling of trust increased considerably when the label message was supported by a certifying authority, a large proportion (almost one third) of participants refused to taste a product that had been approved by the EU for nearly a decade. Practical implications – This result demonstrated in an emphatic way a degree of phobia concerning GM food and the importance of carefully worded labelling. Originality/value – The attitude of consumers after direct experience with a GM food product had never been reported for Greece and these findings may serve as an exploratory tool for further investigations on GM food related attitudes.

Journal

British Food Journal – Emerald Publishing

Published: Mar 21, 2008

Keywords: Labelling; Perception; Greece; Consumer behaviour; Food production; Genetic modification

There are no references for this article.