Do European Consumers Buy GM Foods?

Results of the “Consumerchoice” survey funded by the European Commission and conducted by an international research team revealed that most Europeans will purchase genetically modified food when offered the opportunity. The researchers found that in practice, shoppers frequently behaved differently from the way they say they would do. Nearly half of the people who bought GM-labeled foods said they would not buy such products, while 30% of consumers buying them did not know whether they had bought them.

The focus groups showed that, when discussing food purchasing habits, GM-food is not a topic uppermost in people’s minds. Labeling was regarded as important yet few of the participants actually looked at the labels when buying food.

“The main external factor limiting the choice of European consumers with respect to their purchases of GM-foods is availability in the stores”, said King’s College London professor Vivian Moses, coordinator of the study. Moses noted that the study explored public attitudes towards GM products in ten countries by asking in various direct and indirect ways what people actually do in grocery stores, not just what they say they might do.

For more information, visit http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/biohealth/research/nutritional/consumerchoice/downloads.html