Nanotechnology in the agri-food sector: Consumer perceptions

Abstract

The purpose of this work was to evaluate Spanish consumers' opinions on using nanotechnology in food processing and packaging. For this purpose, a literature review was carried out in the main research database to determine the most widespread uses of nanotechnology in the food industry and the most promising developments. Of all the nanotechnology uses in food, five areas of application were identified: developing new ingredients or additives, formulating new antimicrobial systems, and designing new processing methods, sensors and packaging with nanostructured materials. Subsequently, a consumers' opinion study was carried out by means of a survey, in which the opinions and purchase intention of a representative product of all five categories were evaluated, as well as the neophobia level to new food technologies. All the products obtained positive evaluations, and the applications in which nanotechnology did not form part of food were generally better valued than those in which it did form part. The respondents had a medium neophobia level, with an average score of 4.59 (out of 7 points), being consumers with more knowledge about new technologies the least neophobic and those who gave products higher scores. This study provides relevant information for using nanotechnology in the food processing and packaging sector.

Keywords: Consumer opinion; Food processing; Nanotechnology; Neophobia; Packaging.