Effects of labeling a product eco-friendly and genetically modified: A cross-cultural comparison for estimates of taste, willingness to pay and health consequences

Consumers’ perceptions of GM‐free labelled foods: A sensory experiment

“…This, and the fact that a GM‐free label hardly altered sensory or emotional perceptions, is somewhat surprising. Previous sensory experiments on GM labelling (Lu et al, ; Sörqvist et al, ) have shown that labels could alter consumers’ hedonic assessment, similar as for eco‐labelling (Sörqvist et al, ), organic (Lee et al, ) or health labelling (Schouteten et al, ; Wansink et al, ), even if labelled and nonlabelled products are identical. Therefore, and given the negative climate that still surrounds GM technology in Europe, one could have expected a more positive evaluation of GM‐free labelled products in this study.…”

“…Among these, several studies have specifically examined the role of GM (Hemphill & Banerjee, ; Heslop, ; Hu, Veeman, & Adamowicz, ; Huffman, Shogren, Rousu, & Tegene, ) and/or GM‐free labelling (Harrison & Mclennon, ; Loureiro & Hine, ; Soregaroli, Boccaletti, & Moro, ). In Europe, consumer studies have reported negative impacts of GM food labelling on perceptions and willingness‐to‐pay (Rimal, Moon, & Balasubramanian, ; Sebastian‐Ponce et al, ; Sörqvist et al, ), though they are largely unaware of GM labels on existing food products (FSA, ; Knight, Mather, & Holdsworth, ; Noussair, Robin, & Ruffieux, ).…”

“…A study on novel processing and preservation technologies, for example, has shown a link between consumers’ concerns to new technologies and their expected liking (Cardello, ). With respect to GM food labelling effects on sensory perceptions, however, evidence is still scarce (Lu, Rahman, & Chi, ; Sörqvist et al, ). Moreover, such experiments currently do not go beyond traditional hedonic assessment (Sörqvist et al, ) or only focus on the overall sensory modalities (e.g., appearance and aroma) (Lu et al, ), similar as for sensory experiments on GM food without labelling (Lim, Miller, Park, & Park, ).…”

“…As compared to several other EU member states, such as Austria, France, Germany, Switzerland and The Netherlands, Belgium currently does not have a mandatory GM‐free labelling policy (EC DG SANCO, ). This study can be considered the first sensory experiment on GM‐related labelling that goes beyond hedonic assessment by integrating both sensory profiling (Sörqvist et al, ) and emotional evaluations (Lagast, Gellynck, Schouteten, De Herdt & De Steur, ), but is also the first to target GM‐free labelling.…”

How do lobbies and NGOs try to influence dietary behaviour?

“…Next, Sörqvist et al (2016) examined the effect of labelling an environmentally friendly and genetically modified for raisins in Sweden and the UK. According to them, these two characteristics are not mutually exclusive while consumers tend to think that the term "organic" means not genetically modified.…”