Rutgers Study Americans' Perceptions on GM Food Labeling

Most Americans pay little attention to GM foods, according to a survey on public perceptions of GM food labeling conducted by researchers at Rudgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. More than half (53%) of the respondents said that they have limited knowledge about GM foods, and about 25 percent said that they are not aware of GM foods.

To better understand current consumer attitudes, the researchers asked questions about labeling in different ways. When asked about what they want to see in food labels that is not already there, only 7 percent said about GM food on their own. But when asked directly if they want GM foods to be labeled, 73 percent said yes. Majority (59%) of the respondents said that GM food labeling is important, which is about the same number of respondents who indicated that they want information about using hormones (63%), pesticides (62%), or antibiotics (61%), whether it was grown or raised in the United States (60%), and whether the product contains allergens (59%).

The working paper of the study is available at http://humeco.rutgers.edu/documents_PDF/news/GMlabelingperceptions.pdf.