THE INFLUENCES OF PERCEIVED FOOD ATTRIBUTES ON CONSUMER PREFERENCES FOR ORGANIC AND GMO FOODS

This paper uses a logistic regression model to examine consumer willingness to buy organic and/or GM food products in the context of food attributes that are considered important in the consumption decision. That model is chosen for its mathematical simplicity and because its asymptotic characteristic constrains the predicted probabilities to a range between zero and one. In particular, the model examines the process that shapes food preferences in the absence or presence of specific food attributes. The paper finds that food attributes related to health, naturalness, familiarity, vegetarian-vegan, production location, and availability are critical in the acceptance of the organic and/or GM foods. The results show that food naturalness is pivotal to the organic food purchasing decision, while the absence of allergenic causing ingredients increase GM purchases. The findings also suggest that although there are perceived differences between organic and/or GM foods, the presence or absence of an attribute becomes important only when a respondent claims ownership of the good through the purchase action.