The attitude, willingness to purchase, and the necessity of labeling in genetically modified foods in the customer of these products

Back ground and Aim: The purpose of this study was to determine the attitude, willingness to purchase, and the necessity of labeling in genetically modified foods GMFs in the customer of these products.Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, attitude, willingness to purchase and the necessity of labeling in 203 employees of the medical university mean age 39.98 years old , 126 women 62.1% and 77 men 37.9% were evaluated for GMFs by using a validated questionnaire. Validity and reliability of the questionnaire were examined by expert panel and test-retest method. Data analysis was done by SPSS.Results: The results of this study showed that 11.3% of participants had a good attitude and 37.9% had a negative attitude towards GMFs. Of all participants 81.7% completely agreed on the labeling of GMFs and 13.3% tended to buy these products. In contrast, 49.3% did not tend to buy these products. There was a significant relationship between gender, attitude p = 0.005 and necessity of labeling p = 0.050 . There was a significant difference between history of food intolerance and the necessity of labeling p= 0.040 . Also, there was a significant relationship between the attitude and the willingness to buy of genetically modified products p <0.001, R = 0.368 .Conclusion: The willingness to buy genetically modified products has been reported less in participants of this study. Therefore, if the knowledge of the benefits of these products is increased, they will tend to buy these products.

Keywords:

genetically modified foods , employee , attitude , willingness to purchase , the necessity of labeling