Consumption of irradiated foods: strawberries case study

Faced with the various technologies used today to preserve food, consumers are becoming more demanding on information relating to both the quality and the processing of food. One of the technologies that has proven its effectiveness in food safety is irradiation, however people remain cautious or even refuse this technology which is not yet very popular and popularized thinking that it is a toxic treatment. This paper identifies the basic knowledge of two populations (Tunisian and Portuguese) about ionizing treatment and their intention to purchase irradiated foods, focusing on strawberry fruits. An online survey was conducted for research purposes and 1,000 people, living in Tunisia and Portugal were involved. The findings showed that there is still a dearth of knowledge on food irradiation, which demonstrates mistrust, misunderstandings, and reluctance to purchase irradiated products. In contrast to 56.3% of Tunisians, the data indicated that 60.7% of Portuguese do not know what food irradiation is. The two populations think that irradiating food and consuming it are harmful, despite the fact that their knowledge of the process is spread out differently. The Portuguese, who were more interested about food irradiation, were also more inclined to purchase and consume irradiated strawberries than the Tunisians. In fact, 62.7% of Portuguese people indicated they would be convinced to buy irradiated strawberries, in contrast to 33.5% of Tunisians who stated they would certainly not buy it and insisted on the harmful effects of the treatment if they had more knowledge and evidence if the treatment had been shown to be successful.