20 CHAPTER 3 REVIEW OF CONJOINT ANALYSIS THEORY ...

contain any trace of genetically modified ingredients. One participant believed that food
products should be labeled GMO only if contents contain more than 50% of genetically
modified ingredients. Another believed that labeling should not be required regardless of
the amount of genetically modified ingredients. When asked specifically if they would
buy products with a GMO label, most participants said yes. Most participants said, that as
consumers they have the right to know about the production process of the food they eat,
and as a result, products produced by biotechnology should be labeled as such. In
addition, participants believed that biotechnology is beneficial, and is a process, that once
they have more information about, would more readily embrace. The focus group
discussion indicated that both logo and text disclosure were important attributes. Location
of the disclosure was also important, and the respondents thought that any easily
identifiable logo would aid their shopping and purchase decisions. Based on these results,
the attributes selected for the mail survey are presented in table 3.1.
Table 3.1 Attributes and Their Levels Used in Survey
Attribute
Levels
Text disclosure of biotech
Ingredients
Biotech logo
Location of a Biotech logo
Simple text disclosure
Text disclosure with benefits of the technology
No text
Present
Absent
Principal Display Panel
Informational Panel
The Experimental Design
The focus-group discussion identified three important attributes and levels, which
were combined to form hypothetical biotech labels. Levels were based on results from the
focus group discussion, and FDA’s labeling requirement guidelines were used to ensure
that realistic scenarios were presented.
Respondents’ evaluation and measurement of
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