Effect of labelling fresh cultivated blueberry products with information about irradiation technologies and related benefits on Finnish, German, and Spanish consumers’ product acceptance
Introduction
Food irradiation is a process used in food production where food and agricultural products are exposed to ionizing radiation. The technique has multiple benefits: it eliminates bacteria that can cause food poisoning, such as Salmonella and Escherichia coli, without the use of water or chemicals, and it supports food preservation, thereby reducing food waste. Its effect is similar to other food preservation methods, such as pasteurization or cooking. However, changes caused by irradiation in the appearance and texture of the food are smaller than those induced by other preservation methods (Food Standards Agency, 2017). The objective of European Union's food safety policy is to ensure that consumers have access to safe food. A legislative framework around food safety has been implemented to cover the entire farm-to-fork chain (Bondoc 2016a, pp. 12–15; Bondoc 2016b, pp. 16–19; Stefanova, Vasilev, & Spassov, 2010). The implementation of food irradiation in European food industry falls under Council Directives 1999/2/EC and 1999/3/EC. According to the Codex Alimentarius Commission (2003), food irradiation is permitted on any food as far as the technological purpose is met, there is no consumer safety risk and the wholesomeness of the food is not compromised.
There are three sources of ionizing radiation for food treatment: gamma rays, X-rays and electron beams (high-energy and low-energy). Gamma rays are generated from radioactive isotopes, whereas X-rays and electron beams derive from machine sources. Electron beams are produced by accelerating a stream of electrons and focusing them into beams that can be directed at food products (Farkas, 1998). The process is efficient, fast and does not produce nuclear waste (Wei et al., 2014). In general, the range of the energies of accelerated electrons for food treatment is between 8 and 10 Megaelectron volts (MeV), enabling the radiation to penetrate the food from a few to a dozen centimetres, depending on the properties of the food. When gamma rays, X-rays, and the high-energy electron beams (HEEB) are applied, the whole food is irradiated (Gryczka, Migdal, & Bulka, 2018). However, microorganisms reside mainly on the surface of low-moisture foods and the irradiation treatment of the external layer could eliminate foodborne pathogens (Baba, Kaneko, & Taniguchi, 2004). Studies have shown that homogenous treatment of surfaces with energies lower than 300 kiloelectron volts (KeV) through low-energy electron beams (LEEB) can decontaminate food ingredients without detrimental effects on food quality (Hayashi, 1998; Hayashi, Takahashi, & Todoriki, 1997, 1998; Todoriki, Kikuchi, Nakaoka, Miike, & Hayashi, 2002).
Understanding consumers' views on food irradiation is pivotal. As with all new food-processing technologies, consumers' acceptance of food irradiation dictates whether the technology can gain wider penetration in the market (Eustice & Bruhn, 2013; Henson, 1995). Some understanding of consumers' views on food irradiation already exists. Previous studies have focused on 1) analysing consumers' beliefs and attitudes towards food irradiation at a general level and 2) studying factors predicting consumers' acceptance of specific irradiated food products. At a general level, consumers hold negative beliefs and attitudes towards food irradiation, which is evident in spontaneous associations they make between food irradiation and radioactivity and words such as atomic and nuclear (Behrens, Barcellos, Frewer, Nunes, & Landgraf, 2009; Eustice & Bruhn, 2013; Resurreccion, Galvez, Fletcher, & Misra, 1995; Stefanova et al., 2010). Demographics and socio-economics predict consumers' general attitudes towards food irradiation. For example, the presence of children under eighteen years of age in families is associated with opposition to irradiation, men are more positive towards irradiation than women (Behrens et al., 2009; Eustice & Bruhn, 2013). Moreover, studies have found that higher subjective knowledge of food irradiation is associated with more positive views towards the technologies (Lima Filho, Della Lucia, & Lima, 2017; Teisl, Fein, & Levy, 2009) although consumers’ self-reported knowledge about food irradiation is often low (Eustice & Bruhn, 2013; Junqueira-Gonçalves et al., 2011).
Several studies have focused on factors that predict consumers’ acceptance of specific irradiated food products. Demographics and socio-economics such as age, education, income and place of residence correlate with the acceptance. Lima Filho et al. (2017) found that the younger, the well-educated and consumers with higher income hold a more positive attitude towards irradiated foods. Galati, Moavero, and Crescimanno (2019) found that consumers living in rural areas were more hesitant to accept irradiated foods.
A prominent method for informing consumers about food irradiation and to affect its acceptance is through food labelling (e.g. Bearth & Siegrist, 2019; Deliza, Rosenthal, Hedderley, & Jaeger, 2010; Fox, 2002; Fox, Hayes, & Shogren, 2002; Frenzen et al., 2001). It has been found that information about irradiation benefits on a product label, such as improved food safety, increases consumer acceptance (Bruhn, 2001; Lima Filho, Della Lucia, Lima, & Minim, 2015; Nayga, Aiew, & Nichols, 2005). Also, ways of expressing the irradiation information on labels affect consumer acceptance. Lima Filho et al. (2015) demonstrated that consumers have lower acceptance of food products labelled as ‘treated by irradiation process’ compared to those labelled as ‘treated by ionization process’. In a recent study, Bearth and Siegrist (2019) illustrated, with five different product types, that certain formulations of the irradiation message can lead to equal product quality evaluations to when no irradiation information is given.
In previous studies, the irradiation technologies (gamma ray, X-ray, HEEB, LEEB) have not been clearly specified and communicated to consumers but expressions such as ‘food irradiation technology’ or ‘irradiated food’ have been used. Thus, it is unknown how communication of specific food irradiation technologies to consumers through product labels affect their acceptance. Understanding how consumers' acceptance varies based on such communication supports the food industry in identifying the most accepted food irradiation technologies. Such understanding may also support food safety authorities to provide legislation frameworks that support consumers' understanding of the benefits gained through food irradiation and prevent unnecessary mis-associations and fears towards the technologies.
There are indications that acceptance of irradiated food products relates positively to information about its benefits (Lima Filho et al., 2015). Studied benefits have been mostly related to food safety. However, specific irradiation technologies, such as LEEB, also provide benefits relating to sustainability, food preservation and food quality. Understanding the variance caused by different irradiation benefits on consumer acceptance could provide multiple opportunities for labelling irradiated food products in ways that are meaningful to consumers, thereby overcoming the obstacles related to consumer acceptance.
This study has two aims. The first aim is to examine if there is variation in consumers' acceptance of irradiated fresh cultivated blueberries labelled with information about different irradiation technologies. In addition, correlations between consumers' demographic, socio-economic and psychographic factors and product acceptance are studied to shed light on factors related to product acceptance. The second aim is to study if information about fresh cultivated blueberry irradiation with LEEB technology accompanied with the varying benefits of the technology cause variation in consumers' acceptance. Also, LEEB treated product acceptance is correlated against consumers’ demographic, socio-economic and psychographic factors. To achieve the aims, two independent studies were carried out in Finland, Germany and Spain.
Section snippets
Study design
Two independent studies with similar logic were performed (later referred to as Study 1 and Study 2). Study 1 aimed at analysing if labelling fresh cultivated blueberries as treated with different irradiation technologies results in variation in consumer acceptance. The aim of Study 2 was to examine if labelling fresh cultivated blueberries with information about different benefits of low-energy electron beam (LEEB) treatment causes variation in consumer acceptance. Fresh blueberries were
Study 1: product acceptance
Respondents' evaluations related to Intentions [F(4.553, 2718.106) = 151.962, p ≤ .001], Quality [F(4.321, 2579.897) = 135.447, p ≤ .001], and Suspicion [F(4.568, 2727.354) = 117.856, p ≤ .001] varied depending on the label text on the product (Fig. 3). Intention to try and buy the control product was higher than that of the experimental ones. The control product was also evaluated higher in quality and as less suspicious compared to the experimental products. The experimental products
Discussion
The results of two independent studies show that information on food irradiation technologies and related benefits delivered to consumers through product labelling causes variation in consumers' acceptance of irradiated foods. The first study demonstrated that food irradiation technologies without explicit terminology related to irradiation (high-energy electron beam-HEEB and low-energy electron beam-LEEB) received higher acceptance among consumers. This result is in line with previous studies,
Conclusions
Two independent studies were performed in Finland, Germany and Spain to analyse the consumer acceptance of irradiated blueberries. Results from Study 1 show that consumer acceptance is higher in relation to products that make no direct reference to irradiation. Results from Study 2 indicate that informing consumers about potential benefits of food irradiation increases consumer acceptance. No differences in acceptance were identified between different types of benefits. In both studies, Spanish
Funding
This work received funding from EIT Food (ID19087), the innovation community on Food of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the EU under Horizon 2020, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Angelos Balatsas-Lekkas: Investigation, Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing - original draft, Visualization. Anne Arvola: Formal analysis, Writing - review & editing, Methodology. Heidi Kotilainen: Writing - review & editing, Resources. Nicolas Meneses: Funding acquisition, Conceptualization. Kyösti Pennanen: Investigation, Funding acquisition, Project administration, Supervision, Conceptualization, Writing - review & editing.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no competing interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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