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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Mario F. Teisl, Assoc Professor, Resource Economics and Policy, University of Maine, 5782 Winslow Hall, Orono, ME 04469, 207-581-3162, teisl@maine.edu, Brian Roe, Assoc Professor, Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics, The Ohio State University, 2120 Fyffe Road, Columbus, OH 43210-106, and Gerald Mumma, Economist, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Rd, Atlanta, GA 30333.

Public concern about foodborne illness is high. In response, producers have developed pathogen-reducing technologies but are reluctant to adopt them due to consumer concerns about their safety. Understanding how and why consumers react to treated foods may be critical to technology adoption.

To answer the above, we administered a mail survey to a nationally representative sample of US consumers. Respondents were presented food-choice scenarios and asked to choose one of three actions: choose a food treated with a pathogen-reducing technology; choose an untreated food or choose to stop buying the food altogether. Scenarios differed in food prices, technologies used (irradiation or ethylene gas), food type (hotdogs or hamburger), pathogen treated (E. coli or Listeria) and the technology's effectiveness.

Forty-three percent of consumers chose to buy a treated food, while seven percent chose to stop buying the food. Treated food purchases are positively influenced by lower prices, respondent perceptions of the technology's effectiveness and the level of pathogens in untreated food. Consumers with higher incomes, education, and sensitivity to food safety issues prefer treated foods. Reactions differ across technology and food type.

Importantly, these variables also drive respondents to stop buying the foods. If producers provide consumers both treated and untreated product, then the act of providing treated foods may actually lead to aggregate losses in sales. This may explain firms' reluctance to adopt these technologies. Unless consumer concerns can be allayed, the population may face higher food-safety risks. To reduce these risks public education may help jump-start technology adoption.

Learning Objectives: