The impact of information disclosure on consumer acceptance of genome-edited foods in Japan

Genome editing is promising to accelerate the rate of genetic progress by enabling the replacement of the germ cell lineage of commercial breeding animals with cells derived from genetically elite lines. This is an efficient way to produce foods and reduce food waste. However, foods using genome editing are not very familiar in Japan. The purpose of this study is to investigate consumer acceptance of genome-edited foods and the impact of information disclosure on it. We constructed an acceptance model for genome-edited foods and investigate the amount of willingness to pay for the level of information disclosure. Genome-edited food acceptance model illustrated that information credibility and perceived usefulness were significantly related to the consumer acceptance of genome-edited foods. WTP of functional information label is 76 JPY (approx. 0.69USD), and that of genome-edited food label is 11 JPY (approx. 0.1USD). For genome editing technology description, it was 38 JPY (approx. 0.345USD). The most important factor is functional information. Since this study is an early study in the genome-edited food acceptance model, we believe that there is room for various discussions in the future.

Methods
This data was collected by questionnaire survey from an anonymous survey was administered to 550 respondents in their twenties to seventies living in Japan in August 2021.