Assessment of People’s Perception of Genetically Modified Foods and their Risk or Benefits to Human Health in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

There is a significant growth in the human population worldwide which leads to increasing the demand for food, which typically results in additional use of food industries to make a new form of food such as genetically modified food (GMF) to meet the need for global nutrition. GMF starts to invade our diet which results in increase the concerns and debates about their safety. The present study is investigating the following: Assess people’s knowledge about GMF and evaluate its risk on health. An online survey was carried out to assess consumer knowledge about GMF. The study showed that 74.3% of the respondent know what GMF is and in terms of the risk of GMF on the environment and human health about 43.7% believe there is a risk. The majority of the respondents assume that the risk of GMF is greater than its benefits. Some of the respondents believe that there is an effect of consuming GMF on their genes, but it is still unknown. Expert knowledge on the scientific issues surrounding genetically modified food is far behind what the general population believes. The conclusion that may be drawn from the scientific method is almost always solely the truth, despite the fact that culture and attitudes can vary