Research Note: Adolescents' perceptions of food chemical risks

A questionnaire measuring attitude towards four categories of food chemicals (colourings, flavourings, pesticides and fertilizers), level of concern for the environment, dietary habits and reasons for food choice was administered to 932 high school students aged 12-15 years during regular classroom periods. Students also indicated whether they could recall classroom teaching on 15 food and health related issues. Scores were derived representing self-reported frequency of eating (a) foods that were high in fat, or (b) fresh fruits and vegetables. Along with a measure of environmental concern, these were entered as covariates in the analysis of attitudes towards the different classes of additives. Age and gender had little effect on these attitudes. However, more positive attitudes towards both colourings and flavourings were associated with more frequent consumption of 'fat' foods and less frequent consumption of 'fresh' foods. Those with higher 'fat' diets also evaluated the use of pesticides more positively, whereas those expressing greater environmental concern were more opposed to flavourings, fertilizers and (marginally) pesticides. With regard to reasons for food choice, those with higher 'fat' and lower 'fresh' diets appeared to place more weight on pleasure than on nutritional information, whereas those higher on environmental concern paid more attention to labelling and food value. Older students were more able to choose their own diet, but attended less to the health value of the foods they chose, and expressed less trust in food labelling and government control. These findings suggest that judgements of risk are guided by evaluative associations, derived partly from more general attitudes and previous behaviour.