Abstract:

With the development of food technology as a solution to solve the constant increase in the demand of food stocks, food safety has become a controversial topic worldwide. Consumers’ concerns about food and nutrition have been growing over time as new healthy eating trends have emerged opposed to the negative impacts that antibiotics, hormones, flavour enhancers, preservatives, antioxidants and other technologically processed substances are said to have on human health. As Romania was one of the largest GMO producers in Europe, the perception of biotechnology plays an important role in Romanian consumers’ buying behaviour of products that are marked as having genetically modified ingredients. Additional to this, the absence of a proper education on the matter of biotechnology and food security is driving Romanian consumers to refuse to purchase products that are marked as GM foods. This paper is trying to describe the attitudes of Romanian consumers towards genetically modified foods in terms of health risks.