In 2002, a survey measuring consumer attitudes toward genetically modified foods was conducted in China. Five hundred and ninety-nine consumers were surveyed in four separate locations. Generally, the survey concluded that most consumers had little to no knowledge of genetically modified food, however, researchers found that consumers regarded and alluded to GM positively, especially in terms of products-enhancing traits. These results imply that there is a potential market for genetically modified foods in China, unlike in Japan and the EU (10).
Summary statistics for consumer information and perception variables.
|
Variable |
Description (coding) |
Distribution of responses |
|
Safety |
Importance of food safety vs. food price (scale from 1 to 10 where 1 = food safety all important; 10 = food price all important) |
Mean = 3.47 |
|
Risk |
Risk associated with GM foods (1 if high risk; 0 if little risk, no risk, or don’t know) |
|
|
high risk |
7.8% |
|
|
little risk |
27.5% |
|
|
no risk |
25.0% |
|
|
don’t know |
39.7% |
|
|
Opinion |
Opinion about use of biotechnology (1 if favorable or neutral opinion; 0 if negative opinion or don’t know) |
|
|
favorable opinion |
61.6% |
|
|
neutral opinion |
6.9% |
|
|
negative opinion |
9.3% |
|
|
don’t know |
22.2% |
|
|
Knowledge |
Self-reported knowledge about biotechnology (1 if high knowledge or little knowledge; 0 if no knowledge) |
|
|
high knowledge |
1.0% |
|
|
little knowledge |
44.9% |
|
|
no knowledge |
54.1% |
|
|
Label |
1 if GM labeling very important; 0 if somewhat or not very important |
|
|
very important |
61.9 % |
|
|
somewhat important |
27.9% |
|
|
not very important |
10.2% |
|
|
Import |
1 if prefers domestic to imported foods; 0 otherwise |
|
|
prefers domestic to imported foods |
84.5 % |
|
|
otherwise |
15.5% |
|
*Statistics and chart referencfed from here (10).
