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.
Subject (authority = RUETD)
Topic
Nutritional Sciences
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = RULIB)
ETD
Identifier
ETD_5185
PhysicalDescription
Form (authority = gmd)
electronic resource
InternetMediaType
application/pdf
InternetMediaType
text/xml
Extent
vii, 96 p. : ill.
Note (type = degree)
M.S.
Note (type = bibliography)
Includes bibliographical references
Note (type = statement of responsibility)
by Melanie Sunkyung Kim
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Food--Packaging
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Food industry and trade
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Nanotechnology
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Graduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = local)
rucore19991600001
Location
PhysicalLocation (authority = marcorg); (displayLabel = Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey)
Rutgers University. Graduate School - New Brunswick
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Type
License
Name
Author Agreement License
Detail
I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.