European Commission: Framework 6

Project no.: 518435
Contractor: King’s College London
Instrument: 5.4.3 Area: Impact of food on health
Thematic Priority: 5 Food Quality and Safety
Date: 1 May 2006 to 30 October 2008

This project, funded by the European Commission, addressed the question of whether consumers in the EU buy GM-foods when they are available on the shelves of grocery stores. As part of the ongoing debate on this and related issues, there have been many opinion polls asking people what they would do about GM-foods but few, if any, direct investigations of what they do actually do in practice when they go shopping. The project therefore also explored the question of whether opinion polls are reliable indicators of people’s actions.

The study involved ten Member States – the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Greece, The Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK – together with participation from organisations taking an EU-view both from a consumer and an industry perspective.

The coordinator of the project and the King's College London contact is Professor V. Moses.