January 2013
Featured in this insight: Consumer goods & FMCG , Food & drink, Retail
Survey finds Britons not bothered by GM food issue: Market research by the UK Food Standards Agency has revealed that most Britons do not care about eating genetically modified (GM) food.
The Food Standards Agency published certain survey findings as part of its research into consumer attitudes when it comes to the labelling of genetically modified (GM) food and the use of "GM-free" labelling.
Only 2% of the respondents who took part in the UK study claimed to be bothered to look for information about biotech content when buying food products for the first time.
Britons are more concerned however about GM foods than Americans, since less than 1% of US consumers said they wanted biotech labels in a survey by the International Food Industry Council last year.
Further important findings by the recent UK Food Standards Agency study were that the apathy about biotech labelling could be due to lack of education on the matter, since consumer awareness of current labelling regulations was found to be low.
While most surveyants did not seek information or labelling when it came to GM foods, there was however a slight preference for labelling that indicates the presence of GM, rather than labelling that indicates the absence of GM.
Of those who preferred the "GM-free" label, they expected this to mean that the labelled product should be completely free of GM technology, however this is not always the case.
View more of our sector specific insights: Consumer goods & FMCG, Food & drink, Retail
