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Feature
Non conventional
technologies and
potential for reducing the environmental impact caused by
the alternative, traditional method of production. The analysis
took account of the eects of other factors such as reduced
Consumers are becoming more conscious about the Consumers are becoming increasingly concerned
potentially negative impact of food processing on human about both the quality of the food they eat, and about
health and the environment. In particular, there is increased food safety. These quality and risk-related perceptions
public concern about the application of emerging technologies mean that, for consumers, it is essential that they
such as genetic modi®cation to food production, particularly associate products with adequate (and technologically
with respect to consumer perceptions of potential for appropriate) hygiene practices, for example, food irra-
negative impact of genetically modi®ed organisms on ecology. diation has been rejected by European consumers,
However, less is understood about consumer acceptance of despite reductions in micro-biological risk to those con-
potentially controversial technologies where such technolo- suming irradiated products [1]. Consumers are also
gical innovation replaces traditional manufacturing methods, concerned about nutrition and sensory aspects of foods.
which themselves have the potential for environmental A food, which meets nutritional requirements, is unlikely
harm. In the present study, consumer acceptance of a to be accepted by consumers if they do not like the ¯avour
genetically modi®ed product was examined. In this or other quality attributes. Finally, the method of pro-
research, the process of genetic modi®cation had the duction is also of increasing concern to many consumers.
Pesticide application, genetic modi®cation of plants,
animals and micro-organisms, and other technological
* Corresponding author. E-mail: rodeliza@ctaa.embrapa.br innovations have all resulted in an extremely volatile
0924-2244/00/$ - see front matter Copyright # 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 92 4 - 2 24 4 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 05 2 - 2
M.C. da Costa et al. / Trends in Food Science & Technology 11 (2000) 188±193 189
public debate about the merits and disadvantages of demographic data were used to understand consumer
many food production technologies in many parts of the decision making with respect to genetically modi®ed
world. The growth market in ``organic'' or ``ecological'' vegetable oil. The design of the study replicated research
foods is the result of many consumers becoming conducted in the United Kingdom in 1996, enabling the
increasingly concerned about agrochemical residues, results to be directly compared, and conclusions to be
environmental impacts, and the possible negative made regarding cross-cultural dierences in responses
impacts of human health [2]. Reassurances of technical to genetically modi®ed foods [7]. The vegetable oil was
safety from representatives of the scienti®c and reg- used as an example of a food product because it is
ulatory communities have failed to convince consumers widely consumed by both Brazilian and British con-
that their real concerns about food security are being sumers, increasing the validity of cross-cultural com-
addressed by those institutions designed to promote the parison.
security of the food supply. One result of this concern is
that many non-government organisations are calling for Material and methods
the adoption of the precautionary principal as the standard One hundred and sixty ®ve respondents took part in
approach to regulatory practice, which mitigates against this study. Their ages varied from 16 to 58 years (mean
the development and assessment of new technologies in age 37 years). Respondents were selected from a wide
®eld trials outside of controlled laboratory settings. range of occupations and educational backgrounds to
Many consumers are seeking foods with reduced techno- re¯ect the structure of the Brazilian population as a
logical inputs into processing. However, genetic mod- whole. Inclusion in the study was voluntary, and
i®cation of food, for example, might be more acceptable respondents were not paid following their participation
to consumers if the technology resulted in reduced in the experiment.
environmental impact relative to traditional manu-
facturing processes, or result in some other desirable Package manipulation
and tangible bene®t, such as reduced price. In other Manipulating the four features of interest in the current
words, directing technological innovations towards research involved altering the label design on the product
outcomes that consumers actually want may mitigate created the sun¯ower oil labels. These features were:
against negative perceptions associated with the process
itself [3]. Other factors may also be important in the 1. The provision of information about how the product
acceptance of emerging food technologies. For example, was produced, (genetically modi®ed to enable an
it has been demonstrated that packaging plays an ``environmentally friendly'' solvent free production
important role in consumer food choice [4], and the process to be used, OR ``traditional'' using
features of the label are likely to in¯uence consumer ``environmentally unfriendly'' solvent extraction
food perception, mainly to novel foods, obtained processes, OR simply using ``environmentally
through the application of new technologies. Finally, it friendly'' production methods with no mention of
is important to understand that consumers are not genetic modi®cation)
homogenous; consumer reactions to a particular product 2. Price, (cheap OR expensive)
are prone to intra-individual [5] and cross-cultural var- 3. Brand name (established OR unknown)
iations [6]. 4. Label imagery (traditional, sun¯ower OR ``green''
The present study aimed to investigate the impact of globe, which conveyed symbolically that the pro-
dierent manufacturing processes, brand, price and label duct was manufactured in a way that minimised
image on Brazilian consumers intention to purchase food environmental impact) (Table 1). In all other ways,
quality vegetable oils. Traditional manufacturing processes the product appeared identical for across all
involve the use of solvents, which have the potential for experimental conditions.
negatively impacting on the environment. Alternative
production processes, which do not involve the use of ``Mazola'' is a well-known brand but ``PeÂtala'' is not a
solvents, may require the application of new technologies recognised brand. The prices realistically re¯ect Brazi-
such as genetic modi®cation to the plants from which lian retail price ranges for food vegetable oils at the time
the oil is derived. It is of interest to examine whether the of data collection.
potential for reduced environmental impact increases The features used to design the labels were obtained
acceptance of genetic modi®cation used in food pro- either from commercial products available in the market
duction. Decisions regarding the acceptance or rejection place or created specially for the study using Adobe
of genetically modi®ed foods was interpreted in terms PhotoShop softwareTM for Macintosh1. Features such
other attitudinal variables and values held by respondents. as brand name were photographed with colour slide ®lm
These were the Need for Cognition (NFC), attitude and then scanned into a photographic image-retouching
towards genetic modi®cation, and concern about the programme. A factorial design was used in order to get
environmental impact of technology. In addition, a reasonable number of design combinations [8].
190 M.C. da Costa et al. / Trends in Food Science & Technology 11 (2000) 188±193
Table 2. Purchase intention standardisation and relative There was a marginal dierence (P=0.06) in the rela-
importance of sun¯ower oil label aspects for three cluster of tive number of men and women in each of the clusters.
consumersa Speci®cally, a greater number of women (67%) were
Cluster 1 Cluster 2 Cluster 3 members of cluster 1. This ®nding is consistent with
(n=18) (n=41) (n=31) recent research that has indicated that women tend to
Information be more concerned with environmental and health
. Traditional 0.00a 0.00b 0.00a issues, as well as nutrition information [16±21]. Fur-
. Genetic engineering 0.11b ÿ0.81a 1.02b thermore, Steenkamp [22] has observed that the design
. Environmentally friendly 0.00a 0.34c 1.80c of the package is a more important aspect of purchase
Relative importance 8% 42% 87% intention for women, which may re¯ect the gender bias
observed in cluster 1.
Price Analysis of variance also indicated that there were
. High 0.00 0.00b 0.00b
dierences between the three clusters in terms of
. Low 0.19 ÿ0.82a ÿ0.17a
respondent attitude towards the environment (P<0.05).
Relative importance 13% 30% 5% Respondents in cluster 3 were more likely to express
Illustration high levels of environmental concern, and, consistent
. Sun¯ower 0.00b 0.00 0.00b with this view, were more likely to purchase envir-
. Green globe ÿ1.09a ÿ0.09 ÿ0.14a onmentally friendly vegetable oil.
Relative importance 76% 3% 4%
Discussion
Brand Comparison with research originally conducted in the
. Mazola 0.00b 0.00b 0.00b UK [7] indicated that there are cross-cultural dierences
. PeÂtala ÿ0.04a ÿ0.69a ÿ0.10a
between Brazilian and British consumers in terms of their
Relative importance 3% 25% 3%
acceptance of genetically modi®ed vegetable oils, although
a
Dierent letters denote signi®cant dierences (P<0.05). The these dierences are not profound. British consumers
signÿ (minus) before the scores means that the feature had a (about 30% of the sample) were very price sensitive, and
negative impact on consumer's purchase likelihood evaluation. tended to make purchases based on lower prices, indepen-
dent of other factors such as information provision, brand
or manufacturing process. The majority of consumers
name. These respondents were more likely to purchase (67%) in the British sample preferred environmentally
vegetable oils associated with ``environmentally friend- friendly products and rejected genetically modi®ed
liness,`` and were also prepared to pay a higher retail equivalents, independent of whether the process of genetic
price for the product. These respondents also appeared modi®cation resulted in reduced environmental impact.
to prefer a familiar brand to the novel brand (P<0.05). Many of the Brazilian respondents considered in this
Cluster 3, which comprised 19% of respondents, study were also concerned about green issues and
reacted most strongly to information as the most environmentally advantageous products- but did not
important contributor to purchase decisions. These appear to believe that the application of genetic mod-
respondents expressed higher purchase intentions for i®cation to food processing mitigated against environ-
the environmentally friendly oil. The Mazola brand mental protection. In the UK, consumer negativity
name, high price and sun¯ower illustration also towards genetically modi®ed foods has been a matter of
increased purchase intention for respondents within public and media debate for several years [23], which
cluster 3 (P<0.05). has not been the case in Brazil. However, such cross-
Analysis of variance indicated that there were no dif- cultural dierences may not be temporally stable, but
ferences between the three clusters in term of respon- are prone to in¯uence by other factors such as media
dents need for cognition, nor attitudes of respondents attention to the risks and bene®ts of genetically mod-
towards genetic modi®cation used in food production. i®ed foods in a given culture. Thus attitudes in Brazil
However, there is some evidence that respondents in may become more negative in the future if there is
cluster 3 had a slightly higher NFC. Respondents in this saturation level media reporting associated with genetic
cluster were also more aected by information provi- modi®cation. Such saturation levels of reporting may
sion, which is consistent with other research, although result in a wider public debate about genetic modi®cation
the eect did not reach signi®cance. For example within Brazil, but may also serve to crystallise opinions.
Haugtvedt [15] proposed in their studies that consumers Once people have formed an opinion about an issue (for
with high NFC were more in¯uenced by information, as example the acceptability of genetically modi®ed foods),
they preferred to process in depth and internalise infor- it seems that they ®lter new information in a way which
mation about a product rather than to make assump- consistent with these views. That is, people respond to
tions based on labels and other external cues. new information in an attitude consistent way [24,25].
192 M.C. da Costa et al. / Trends in Food Science & Technology 11 (2000) 188±193
In many parts of the world, consumers are prepared Cross-cultural dierences in acceptance do, of course,
to pay a premium for products, which are produced, have implications for the long-term development of
using environmentally friendly methods [2,26]. Our international trade and regulation. European legislation
results con®rm that Brazilian consumers who are also is taking a precautionary approach towards market
concerned about the environment are prepared to pay a approvals of genetically modi®ed organisms [32]. How
premium for products manufactured using low methods will such precautionary regulation impact upon European
with low environmental impact. The results reported con®dence in products exported from regulatory environ-
here appear to indicate that this proportion of Brazilian ments with less precautionary approaches to regulation of
consumers is not insubstantial, although more research genetically modi®ed food products? The long-term impact
is needed to determine major demographic dierences of such international diversity of public acceptance of
associated with income exist across the Brazilian popu- food technologies opinion on the continuing evolution of
lation as a whole. world trade (and by implication, political structures and
In Brazil, the brand name Mazola, considered as international science policy) is surely worthy of empirical
familiar brand oil in the market place, tended to research and informed commentary in the future.
increase consumer acceptance of the dierent oils, par-
ticularly when associated with the sun¯ower image nor- Acknowledgements
mally associated with this brand. Trusted brands may The authors would like to thank EMBRAPA (Empresa
be more important for Brazilians compared to British Brasileira de Pesquisa AgropecuaÂria) for supporting the
consumersÐmore research may indicate that new tech- research presented here.
nologies or innovative production techniques are more
acceptable to Brazilian consumers if associated with a
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