Determinants of consumer support for mandatory labeling of genetically modified food in India: A student survey
- Publikations-Art
- Zeitschriftenbeitrag (peer-reviewed)
- Autoren
- Dilip Babasaheb Kajale, Tilman C. Becker
- Erscheinungsjahr
- 2013
- Veröffentlicht in
- British Food Journal
- Band/Volume
- Vol. 115/11
- DOI
- 10.1108/BFJ-12-2011-0302
- Seite (von - bis)
- 1597-1611
Purpose: The aim of this paper is to understand young consumers (students) opinion about the mandatory labeling policy for genetically modified foods (GMF), and in-depth analysis of determinants of young consumer support for this policy.
Design/methodology/approach: Consumer survey was conducted by using a face to face interview method for 298 student sample. The hypotheses of this study are risk benefit perceptions and concerns about the current labeling policy likely to determine students support for mandatory labeling of GMF. The questionnaire employed for the survey mainly focuses on the questions such as students perceptions about GMF and opinions about current labeling policy in India. Probit model was used to analyze the determinants of young consumers support for this policy.
Findings: We found that 58% of the students support mandatory labeling of GMF and 39% of the students are willing to pay 10-15% more price for foods under this policy. Young consumers who have knowledge about GM technology are more likely to support this policy. Young consumers’ dissatisfaction about the current labeling, demand for information about food production has a positive influence on support for this policy. Those young consumers use food labels regularly likely to support for this policy and young consumers trust in university for truthful information about GMF have positive influence. Whereas, students risk benefits perception and moral concerns about GMF has an insignificant influence.
Research Limitations: Limitations of our study are that we focused only on university students and used small sample size. Hence, further studies are recommended for overall consumer representative sample.
Practical implications: The findings of this study will be helpful for further research on consumers and mandatory labeling of GMF in India, and also provide some useful information for marketing of GMF in India.
Originality/value: To our knowledge this is the first study that analyzes the determinants of young consumers support for mandatory labeling policy for GMF in India.