Italian Consumer Acceptance of Nutritionally Enhanced GM Food

The aim of this article is to evaluate if Italian consumers have higher acceptance and willingness-to-buy for “second generation” GM foods, i.e.those with an output trait benefit (i.e. nutritionally enhanced) rather than those of first generation, that is with the traditional input trait benefit (i.e., reduced pesticides). Multinomial logit models are estimated to examine the effect of various factors on consumers’ willingness to purchase GM foods without or with nutritionally enhanced attributes. The data collected in the 2005 survey are compared with the results obtained in a previous study performed in 2004, in order to highlight possible changes in consumers attitude and preferences. It comes out that the majority of respondents still do not want to buy GM products, but the average acceptance increased from 2004 to 2005 for plant-based food. This study confirmed the key role of information strategies to the consumers. In fact one of the most relevant results is in the role of distorted information in raising the level of fear and the perception of risk by the consumers. The involved subjects in which the Italians seem to put the higher level of confidence are the scientists, who are traditionally seen as independent from the industry. Individuals that usually consume and buy enhanced food products result to have a higher probability to buy a GM product in which biotechnology is used to increase vitamin content.