ANÁLISE DA PERSPECTIVA DOS CONSUMIDORES SOBRE ALIMENTOS IRRADIADOS

Abstract

Awareness of the sustainable consumption of food in Brazil and in the world must be paramount to avoid the high number of discarded foods. One of the ways to prolong the shelf life of foods is through the irradiation technique, which consists of submitting food, whether in bulk or packaged, to controlled doses of ionizing radiation. However, the consumer still tends to associate this technique with radioactive events that occurred in the world, leading to believe that these foods will cause some damage to their health. This work aimed to verify the level of knowledge about irradiated foods and analyze their acceptance for consumption. An opinion survey was carried out with 52 consumers through the application of a form using the Google Forms platform. In view of the answers, it can be seen that consumers actually associated irradiated foods with something negative to health, but after the explanation on the subject, about 80% of the guests felt more confident in consuming foods that went through the process of irradiation.