Public Acceptance of New Technologies in Food Products and Production

Abstract

In this chapter, we will discuss the public acceptance of new technologies from the perspective of food production and food products. Food is of particular interest in this context as it serves to illustrate many of the relevant issues pertinent to the introduction and application of emerging technologies more generally. Many food products are produced using traditional methods and approaches. However, food products can also be developed using innovative technologies which, furthermore, may be linked to new qualities or attributes in food products. In addition, food consumption is not only a biological necessity, it is also part of people’s lives, and is associated with cultural and social significance, as well as pleasurable or unpleasant sensory experiences. Thus people’s responses to food are not only based on their assessment of its nutritional characteristics, but on various attributes including quality, social context, and hedonistic response. For example, among the wide range of food products that are produced using traditional and long established methods, many are valued by consumers on the basis of perceived naturalness and application of organic or artisanal production methods (Van Rijswijk et al., in preparation). This is reflected by the introduction of, for example, authenticity labelling by institutions such as the European Commission.1