An adaptation of repertory grid methodology to evaluate Australian consumers’ perceptions of food products produced by novel technologies

Construction and validation of a psychometric scale to measure consumers’ fears of novel food technologies: The food technology neophobia scale

“…The questionnaire also included three other scales; the FNS, GNS and TISS, together with six 'Willing to Try' scales covering a range of technologies including currently available preservation techniques, (pasteurisation); high pressure processing (HPP), (Butz et al, 2003;Mireaux, Cox, Cotton, & Evans, 2007) and Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP), (Phillips, 1996) to novel and potentially contentious technologies that involve changing the organism (GM, Triploidy) or food composition (Bioactives, see Table 1). The final section gathered information about the participant's gender, age, educational background and country of birth.…”

“…Similarly, we would expect that the FTNS -'Willing to Try Novel Technologies' scale correlations should be greater than the GNS -'Willing to Try Novel Technologies' scale correlations, since GNS is a much more general scale than either of the others. On the other hand, we would expect the correlations between 'Willing to Try Current Technologies' and the other neophobia scales (FNS and GNS) to be less because the three current technologies are much less contentious, and are known to be acceptable 'food preservation' techniques (Butz et al, 2003;Mireaux et al, 2007;Phillips, 1996) rather than contentious 'food modification' techniques.…”

Consumer-perceived risk model for the introduction of genetically modified food in Spain

“…However, McCarthy and Vilie, 2002, found that consumers perceive more risks than benefits. According to Frewer et al (1995), Grunert et al (2001), Townsend and Campbell (2004) and Mireaux et al (2007), the associated risk is increased by knowledge of the new technologies and the potential effect of these foods on health. Gaskell et al (2006), McCarthy and Vilie (2002), and Moon and Balasubramanian (2004), emphasize that consumers will only accept the new food when tangible benefits increase for them.…”

Can sequential harvesting help small holder organic farmers meet consumer expectations for organic potatoes?

“…Kilcast (2006) points out the importance of research to understand the consumer population that special products target, their perceptions and their needs. This is necessary because consumers may have different expectations and acceptance of the same food product produced using different technologies (Mireaux, Cox, Cotton, & Evans, 2007). Acceptance of a food product depends on consumers understanding and perception of the technology, the exact process involved and its perceived benefits or consequences (Mireaux et al, 2007).…”