DO EUROPEAN CONSUMERS BUY GM FOODS?

The prime objectives of the project were to determine the real attitudes of European consumers towards GM foods by observing their actual purchases when given the opportunity to buy GM products. The researchers analysed how customers are informed by labelling, price, supplementary information, position and prominence on the shelves. These findings are supplemented by the outcome of a specific poll and focus group studies. The final results provide reliable evidence of genuine consumer GM food choices. The exercise of consumer choice on GM foods has implications both along the food chain and for restaurateurs, schools, hospitals, residential institutions, research activities, nutritional advisers, food journalists and policy-makers. Opinion polls offer a variable picture of European consumer attitudes. Some show that many consumers are against GMOs. Other evidence suggests little real interest: when offered products labelled "GM" at a favourable price, consumers tend to buy. Do opinion polls actually provide reliable indications of consumer behaviour when presented with real rather than theoretical choices? Under new EU regulations, many GM food products must be labelled; increasing quantities and varieties of such products are expected to appear in EU food stores in the coming months and years. It will therefore be possible to determine what consumers actually do when buying food as distinct from what they say they will do as reported in polls. The specific objectives of the proposal will be met by: 1. Tracking the introduction of labelled GM foods in 10 Member States 2. Comparing and correlating in those countries the actual consumer purchases of GM foods with opinion polls of expressed intentions, local public discussions, media reports.

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