The Labelling of Genetically Modified Foods in India: Consumer’s Risk Perception, Trust, and Knowledge

Abstract

Food labelling is an important component when it comes to consumer awareness, advertisements of brands, information the product wants to convey, and the like. Parallelly, genetically modified foods have always been a controversial experimental product. It is always linked to health and ethical issues. Hence, this paper focuses on the two most important aspects i.e. labelling and Genetically Modified foods. This paper analyses the Indian consumer’s knowledge, risk perception, and trust in Genetically Modified labelling. Majorly it focuses on apprehending the consumer awareness about Genetically Modified food labelling in India and understanding the perception of the selected population towards genetically modified food. The sample population involved women who are married and are homemakers, working men who are married and are involved in the grocery purchasing decision of their house, working women and men who are unmarried and are involved in the grocery purchasing decision of their house and students who are involved in the grocery purchasing decision in their house. 227 candidates were selected for this whole analysis. It was found that most of the population was unaware of genetically modified labelling. It was though observed that with increasing consumer awareness, the customers are becoming cautious about the food that they purchase and consume for them and their families. The consumers were divided into three cohorts including, benefit seeker, aware consumers, and risk concerned customers. It was found in the study that education, gender, and marital status did not contribute to the result of our analysis. There is a lot of potential for genetically modified food especially in a country like India, where there is an issue of food security. Genetically modified crops have proved to have better yield and quality. India should ponder upon its production. The consumer should be made aware of Genetically Modified crops. Strict labelling should be done of the food containing Genetically Modified because consumers have the right to know their food.