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A Three-year Survey on Korean Consumer's Awareness, Perception and Attitudes toward Genetically-modified Foods; Years 2000-2002  

Kim, Myung-Hee (Department of Food Science, Sejong University)
Kim, Jay-Wook (Department of Food Science, Sejong University)
Chae, Kyung-Yeon (Department of Food Science, Sejong University)
Park, Se-Won (Department of Tourism and Hospitality Industry, Donghae University)
Kim, Youn-Soon (Department of Home Economy Education, Chosun University)
Kyung, Kyu-Hang (Department of Food Science, Sejong University)
Publication Information
Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology / v.35, no.6, 2003 , pp. 1155-1161 More about this Journal
Abstract
A three-year (2000-2002) survey on consumer's awareness and perception of genetically-modified (GM) foods was conducted on random samples of Korean consumers. More than 65% of the respondents were exposed to some information related to GM foods. The greatest benefit of the development of GM foods was thought to be their remedy of potential food shortages in the future. More than 90% of Korean consumers wanted GM foods to be labeled. About 18% of the respondents would buy GM foods voluntarily, whereas over 46% would not until they knew more about the product. Only 39% of Korean consumers were found to have realized that food items origination from plants contained genes. More consumers responded that they would not buy herbicide-resistant GM soybean and buy vitamin-enriched GM soybean instead. Many Korean consumers appeared to make decisions of acceptance or rejection of GM foods not on the basis of biotechnology, but on the basis of the word(s) used to describe the products, such as herbicide and vitamin. Only 4% of Korean consumers responded that GM foods were the greatest threat to the safety of Korean foods.
Keywords
genetically-modified (GM) foods; awareness; herbicide-resistance; soybean; biotechnology;
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