Applying the food technology neophobia scale in a developing country context.
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Date
2015-10-07
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Elsevier Ltd
Abstract
The success of new food technologies largely depends on consumers' behavioral responses to the
innovation. In Eastern Africa, and Uganda in particular, a technology to process matooke into flour has
been introduced with limited success. We measure and apply the Food technology Neophobia Scale
(FTNS) to this specific case. This technique has been increasingly used in consumer research to determine
consumers' fear for foods produced by novel technologies. Although it has been successful in developed
countries, the low number and limited scope of past studies underlines the need for testing its applicability in a developing country context. Data was collected from 209 matooke consumers from Central
Uganda. In general, respondents are relatively neophobic towards the new technology, with an average
FTNS score of 58.7%, which hampers the success of processed matooke flour. Besides socio-demographic
indicators, ‘risk perception’, ‘healthiness’ and the ‘necessity of technologies’ were key factors that
influenced consumer's preference of processed matooke flour. Benchmarking the findings against previous FTNS surveys allows to evaluate factor solutions, compare standardized FTNS scores and further
lends support for the multidimensionality of the FTNS. Being the first application in a developing country
context, this study provides a case for examining food technology neophobia for processed staple crops
in various regions and cultures. Nevertheless, research is needed to replicate this method and evaluate
the external validity of our findings.
Description
We acknowledge the contribution of Isaac Senyondo in the data collection.
Keywords
Banana, Consumer behavior, Determinants, Food technology neophobia scale, Uganda