Files

Abstract

The United States is remarkably safe, when it comes to food supply. Nevertheless, food can become contaminated with a variety of germs. According to reports by a food safety group of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, food-borne illness caused by bacteria such as E. coli and salmonella not only take a huge toll on American consumers’ health but they cost the United States an estimated $152 billion annually in health care and other losses. To curb this increasing phenomenon, there has been a reintroduction of bacteriophage in the treatment of bacteria on raw foods. This study utilized a survey questionnaire administered by telephone to consumers in four different states; Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. In this study, as in other willingness to pay studies, a binary Logit model was employed to estimate consumers’ WTP an additional amount for fresh produce treated with bateriophage technology. The Logit model expresses consumers’ WTP as a function of income, education, race, gender and geographical location (States). Based on the estimation results, income was found to be significant at the 5 percent level in determining a consumer’s WTP. In this particular study, Caucasians were willing to pay an additional amount relative to other races at the 10 percent significance level. Also, where a consumer lived (State) was found to be significant with consumers in the states of Georgia and North Carolina having higher WTP relative to Alabama and South Carolina.

Details

PDF

Statistics

from
to
Export
Download Full History