| The Food Industry is continually growing and looking for new technologies to increase production output as well as profits. Often achieved through technological advancements, one of the newest food technologies is nanotechnology food, which includes any foods that use nanotechnology techniques or tools during its cultivation, processing, production or even packaging of the food. Studies have found that without a positive perception and acceptance by customers, these advances are futile: consumers are more accepting of foods that provide health benefits, and men are consistently more accepting of new food technologies than women. This study surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,210 individuals to assess their baseline knowledge of nanotechnology and their acceptance of nanotechnology foods in relation to the participant's gender and level of education. The study found that men had a significantly higher knowledge about general nanotechnology itself (p = 0.00). As predicted, men showed higher acceptance of nanotechnology foods overall than women [F(1,1098)=8.15, p=0.00]. Men also showed higher acceptance of nanotechnology foods that offer health benefits with a mean score of 6.40 and women responded with a mean of 5.87 [F(1,1186)=7.152, p=0.01]. In addition, the level of education was not found to have a significant effect on acceptance of nanotechnology foods regardless of the benefit it offered [F(1,1098)=7.07, p=0.91]. These results suggest that men are more likely to accept nanotechnology foods, nanotechnology foods that offer health benefits are accepted over nanotechnology foods that offer non-health benefits, and education level does not indicate acceptance of nanotechnology foods. |
