Food risk perception and responsibility in the eyes of consumers with allergic reactions to food

to the ESRC Social Contexts and Responses to Risk, Canterbury Gaivoronskaia G*. Hvinden B. [email protected] Norwegian University of Science and Technology Department of Sociology and Political Science . It was observed that even if each case of food risk is special, public policies dealing with food risk have shifted the burden onto the individual responsibility of consumers. It seems likely that this change meets with a different response in consumer groups and furthermore, a case of genetically modified food poses some questions with respect to how such public policies should be put into practice. In order to better understand these issues we have studied a perception of food risk and responsibility of those consumers who are allergic or intolerant to certain food. A total of 800 persons, 400 allergic and 400 non-allergic, were recruited to answer a postal questionnaire study in Norway. The results suggest that experience of personal harm from food in the form of allergic or intolerant reactions can influence how people evaluate food risk. Allergic consumers were also inclined to take more individual responsibility for risk protection than consumers without allergies. Overall the results indicate that consumers are inclined to take an active role in food risk management, especially if they have been sensitised to food risk through adverse experiences.