Research on irradiated food status and consumer acceptance: A Chinese perspective

Abstract China is currently the world's largest producer of food irradiation. Despite the long‐standing (about 100 years) evidence supporting the safety of food irradiation, consumers’ acceptance of irradiated foods remains limited. This study aimed to investigate the development of food irradiation in China and identify the barriers that keep consumers away from irradiated foods. This was accomplished by exploring the relevant policies of food irradiation, the size and distribution of irradiation facilities in China, and analyzing their relationships between consumer characteristics and the acceptance of irradiated food. To achieve these objectives, we conducted an online survey of participants from Hubei, China (N = 264). The results reveal that irradiation facilities are mainly distributed in large coastal cities such as the Bohai Bay, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Greater Bay Area. Furthermore, the study identified that consumer’ acceptance of irradiated food is directly related to their level of understanding. Approximately 22% of the sampled consumers reported that they would not accept that they have consumed irradiated food and most of them (41%) stated that they would not purchase irradiated food if they were aware of buying irradiated food. Specifically, consumers expressed discomfort with consuming irradiated food under unknown circumstances. This trend is more prevalent among female, low‐educated, and older consumers, with 40% of the sampled population indicating that they would not buy irradiated food. Given the strong correlation between knowledge and acceptance of irradiated foods, the study suggests that policy reform should prioritize enhancing the understanding of irradiated food, particularly among female, low‐educated, and older consumers.

and acceptance of irradiated foods remain low due to unfounded fears about nuclear technology, resulting in widespread consumer concerns about irradiated foods that vary across different regions of the world (Mostafavi et al., 2012).Based on these reasons, this study has analyzed the development of irradiated food and consumers' understanding and acceptance of irradiated food from the perspective of China, aiming to provide a foundation for the healthy and rapid development of irradiated food in China (and the world).

| REG UL ATORY DE VELOPMENT
Ionizing radiation has been extensively studied and used in food processing operations for public health and trade reasons since the 1920s, with systematic research and application beginning in the early 1950s.In October 1980, the Joint Expert Committee on Irradiated Foods of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAFA), and the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that irradiation at a dose below 10 kGy is safe for all irradiated foods (Ehlermann, 2016;Eustice, 2018).It is noteworthy that this conclusion is based on the results of more than 30 years of health and safety research in various countries.In 1980, the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) of FAO and WHO officially issued the "General Regulations for Irradiated Foods," which provided the foundation for the hygiene and regulation of irradiated foods in various countries.
China officially joined the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 1984 and became a member of the International Consultative Group on Food Irradiation (ICGFI) in 1994.In 1986, the Ministry of Health of China (MHC) promulgated the Interim Regulations on the Hygiene Management of Irradiated Foods, which approved the hygienic standards of 18 irradiated foods in three categories, including irradiated pollen, pork, and sweet potato wine (Anonymous, 1994.).In 1996, the "Interim Regulations on the Hygiene Management of Irradiated Foods" was abolished, and on April 5, 1996, the "Regulations of the National Health and Health Commission No. 47: Measures for the Hygiene Management of Irradiated Foods (MHMIF)" was promulgated.These regulations included general requirements for the personnel management system, licensing, employment, properties of irradiation facilities, management of irradiated food and maximum radiation dose (10 kGy), labeling, radiation processing of food, supervision, inspection, and other aspects (Anonymous, 1996).According to Article 19, irradiated food must be labeled on the packaging with a unified marking designed by the National Health Commission, establishing the framework for the management of irradiated food.In 1997, hygienic standards for five categories of irradiated food were reapproved in accordance with the recommendations of the ICGFI (GB1489.1-GB1489.8)(Anonymous, 1997).In 2005, the MHC issued Decree No. 78, deciding to abolish the MHMIF.According to article 2, the state implements a licensing system for food irradiation processing.By 2001, a total of 18 technological standards for irradiated food were promulgated (Anonymous, 2001).From 2006 to 2013, there were 14 industrial standards for food irradiation (NY/T 1206(NY/T -2006, etc.), etc.), and 25 import and export inspection and quarantine industry standards (SN/T 1887(SN/T -2007, etc.) , etc.) were successively promulgated to strengthen the management of the import and export of irradiated food.Additionally, 12 international standards were also promulgated successively, such as the International Recommended Guidelines for Radiation Processing of Food (CODEX STAN 106-1983, Rev.1-2003), International Recommended Practice for radiationprocessed foods (CAC/RCP 19-197919- , Rev.2-2003)), International Recommended Guidelines for Radiation Processing of Food (CAC/ RCP 19-197919- , Rev.1-2003)), etc.
In 2008, the guidelines for phytosanitary measures and the standards for the detection and identification of radiation-treated foods were promulgated (GB/T 21659-2008) (Anonymous, 2008).In 2009, the DNA comet test screening method for the identification of irradiated foods (GB/T 23748-2009) was enacted (Anonymous, 2009).
In 2016, the national food safety standard "Hygienic Specification for Food Radiation Processing" (GB 18524) was released.According to Article 3.5 of the standard, the types of irradiated foods should be within the eight categories of products specified in GB 14891 (GB 14891.1-GB 14891.8),and other foods shall not be irradiated (Anonymous, 2016), as shown in Table 1.Among the above standards, GB is mandatory, and GB/T is recommended.Article 23 of the Food Safety Law (2019) stipulates that food irradiation processing shall comply with national food safety standards, and irradiated processed food shall be inspected and labeled in accordance with the requirements of national food safety standards (Anonymous, 2019).

| SC ALE AND D IS TRIBUTI ON OF R AD IATI ON FACILITIE S
China's first food to be irradiated on an industrial scale was dried potato wine (accelerated aging, de-astringency, and flavor enhancement).Since 1984, China began to irradiate garlic, potatoes, onions, sweet potato wine, and meat products.In 1985, China introduced irradiated garlic into the Chinese food market for the first time in Henan province, and since then, there have been significant economic and social benefits achieved through the irradiation of condiments, functional foods, health foods, and recent aquatic products.
As a result, numerous commercial irradiation devices have been established successively throughout China, distributed in more than 40 cities in 24 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions, such as Qingdao, Wuhan, Ningbo, Nanjing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Beijing, and other large-scale irradiation centers, which all are built for the irradiation of food (Chen, 2004).
At the end of 2019, there were over 120 γ-irradiation installations in China with a design capacity of over 300 kCi, totaling ~176 MCi.
Additionally, there were more than 50 10-MeV high-energy e-beams in operation or under construction, with a total power of around 1, 200 kW.In 2016, the estimated total amount of food irradiation in China was close to 1 million tons per year (Ic & Cetinkaya, 2021).
According to incomplete statistics, the total actual capacity of γ- Firstly, the total cost of a 10 MeV 10 kW electron linear accelerator is estimated to be around 13-15 million yuan, which represents only 40%-60% of the cost of Co-60 sources with equivalent irradiation processing capacity.Additionally, the review and approval process for the electronic linear accelerator project is known for its simplicity, speed, and short duration, with construction typically only about 1.5 years.Secondly, electron linear accelerators incur minimal expense when not in operation, as opposed to Co-60 sources which TA B L E 1 Health standards for food irradiation in China (Anonymous, 1996).

List of foods allowed to be irradiated
Maximum absorbed dose limit In the event of a company going bankrupt, the burden of disposing of nuclear waste falls upon them at a considerable cost.It is noteworthy that, as of 2020, only five electron linear accelerators have been documented; there is a lack of statistics available for those that are planned or currently under construction.
In terms of geographical distribution, Co-60 irradiation facilities are primarily concentrated in large coastal cities such as Bohai Bay, Yangtze River Delta, and Greater Bay Area, and Sichuan and Hubei provinces account for ~20% of the total facilities, mainly in the provincial capitals Chengdu and Wuhan.On the other hand, 10 MeV ebeam facilities are mainly located in Bohai Bay and Yangtze River Delta regions and have gradually expanded to inland and border cities.These facilities are mainly used for border quarantine and sterilization of agricultural products to facilitate the import and export of agricultural products.The actual quantity of facilities is represented outside the parentheses, while the percentage of the total quantity is represented inside the parentheses, as shown in Figures 3 and 4.

| CONSUMER AT TITUDE S TOWARD IRR AD IATED FOODS
The term "irradiation technology" has a large impact on the acceptability of the technology.When it comes to "food irradiation," it often invokes negative associations such as nuclear power plants, genetic mutations, cancer, or radioactive food (Frewer et al., 2011;Jaeger et al., 2015).There is a lack of trust in the food industry, particularly in food processing technologies that consumers perceive as risky.As China is currently the fastest-growing country in the world in food irradiation and also has the highest quantity of irradiated food, it is necessary to assess consumers' understanding of irradiated food and analyze the factors that affect their acceptance.To effectively address consumer concerns about irradiated food, it is essential to have a comprehensive understanding of not only their attitudes but also their awareness and acceptance.While previous studies have investigated consumer attitudes toward irradiated foods to some extent, our study aims to investigate these factors comprehensively, and also guide relevant departments in conducting science education to provide a guarantee for the sustainable development of irradiated food.

| Materials and methods
In Hubei (China), a total of 290 questionnaires were collected, of which 264 questionnaires were deemed valid for analysis, while 26 research questionnaires were found to be invalid.The population characteristics used in these assessments mainly include gender, education level, age, and occupation, and eight inquiries (questions) about irradiated foods as shown in Table 2.The questionnaires were primarily distributed through WeChat and QQ, which are Tencent's two free instant messaging apps for smart devices.
Quantitative analysis of the questionnaire was conducted using SPSS software, which included validity testing and correlation analysis.The correlation analyses involved univariate-crossed chi-square and bivariate-crossed chi-square to determine the strength and statistical significance of the association between any two classes of variables (Goldstein et al., 1976;Hosmane, 1986; The SPSSAU project, 2022).

F I G U R E 1
The increment source capacity of Co-60 irradiation facility varies from year to year.

F I G U R E 2
The increment number of electron accelerators varies from year to year.
In terms of age, the majority fell between 18 and 45 years old, with | 4969 analysis is used for validity analysis, and various indicators, such as KMO value, common degree, variance explanation rate value, and factor loading coefficient value, are comprehensively analyzed to determine the validity level of the data.The KMO value is used to judge the suitability of information extraction, the common degree is used to exclude unreasonable research items, the variance explanation rate value is used to describe the level of information extraction, and the factor loading coefficient is used to measure the corresponding relationship between factors (dimensions) and items.
As shown in Table 4, the common degree values corresponding to all research items are higher than 0.4, indicating effective information extraction from the research items.In addition, the KMO value is 0.652, which is greater than 0.6, indicating that the data can be effectively extracted.The variance explanation rate values of the three factors are 25.019%, 18.906%, and 18.656%, respectively, with a cumulative variance explanation rate after rotation is 62.581% (>50%), which means that the information of the research item can be effectively extracted.

| Correlation analysis
Correlation analysis is used to study the relationship between quantitative data, whether there is a relationship, and the degree of closeness of the relationship.Table 5 shows the correlation be- This suggests that gender has the most prominent influence on consumers' attitudes toward irradiated food, followed by age, while the significance of education and occupation is less apparent.

| Cross chi-square analysis
Cross chi-square analysis is employed to examine the relationship between quantitative data, determine the existence of a relationship, and assess the strength of association.In this study, crossed chi-square is used to further explore the association between population characteristics and specific problems, as presented in Table 6.
The results show that the proportion of women who have little knowledge about irradiated food is significantly higher at 54.55%, compared to men at 36.36%.Similarly, the proportion of women who had never paid attention to irradiated food is significantly higher at 84.62%, compared to men at 48.76%.In Case 3 (Do you think irradiated food is harmful to human health?), 13.99% of women chose "general risk," which is significantly higher than men at 7.44%.
Moreover, 26.57% of women choose "a bit dangerous," significantly higher than men at 15.70%.These results indicate that women rarely know about irradiated food, mainly due to a lack of proactive attention to irradiated food.Partial knowledge about irradiation food leads to greater misunderstanding and lower acceptance.
For Case 5 (Can you accept that the food you eat is irradiated?), 50.41% of men chose "acceptable," significantly higher than women at 34.97%.If informed the food they picked was irradiated food, 47.55% of women chose not to buy it, significantly higher than men at 33.06%.Among male consumers who chose "less harmful," 40.50% of them selected the option of "if the price is cheap and the taste is good" significantly higher than female consumers at 25.87%.
This indicates that half of men and one-third of women are willing to accept that the food they have consumed is irradiated.However, if they are informed that they are buying irradiated food, their willingness to purchase is further reduced.This further shows that if consumers are informed about irradiated food through irradiation labels or other means without improving consumers' understanding of irradiated food, it may not be conducive to the sales of irradiated food.
For Case 6 (Do you want to know more about irradiated food?), 94.41% of women and 78.51% of men chose "yes" option.This result shows that consumers, in general, express a desire to learn more about irradiated food, indicating a limited availability of channels for consumers to obtain information on irradiated food, and the publicity of irradiated food needs to be further strengthened.For Case 8 (What is your general attitude towards irradiated food?).It can also be seen that 80% of consumers wish to strengthen publicity.
Furthermore, only 3.41% of consumers believe that irradiated food is unsafe and should be banned, which is significantly lower than the 22% who do not accept it.That is to say, consumers who do not accept irradiated food are mainly concerned due to a lack of understanding, especially female consumers.
From Table 7, it can be observed that different age groups have varying levels of understanding and acceptance of irradiated food.
Those under the age of 18 represent young people who have not yet graduated from high school; those aged 18-25 years are mainly college students, graduate students, and young people who have just started working; and those over 45 years represent middle-aged and elderly people.Consumers in the 18-25 age group show higher understanding and acceptance of irradiated food.Notably, consumers of all age groups, except those in the 18-25 age group, believe that irradiated food is harmful and will not buy it.This is because consumers in the 18-25 age group prioritize taste and practicality more.
On the other hand, consumers over the age of 45 have the lowest acceptance of irradiated food, with only 16.67%.However, 58% of consumers choose to accept it with knowledge, indicating that they are the main group that has concerns about irradiated food and requires more attention.It is also noteworthy that 100% of middleaged and elderly consumers express the desire to know more about irradiated food.
Furthermore, from an educational perspective, it can be observed that consumers with higher education levels tend to or have more knowledge about irradiated food, which is in accordance with the irradiation installations used for food irradiation is about 49.35 MCi (actual loading is 70 MCi, accounting for 23% of the world's total) with a total of 45 10 MeV e-beams expected to be completed by the end of 2022, as shown in Figure 1 (Ic & Cetinkaya, 2021).It is worth noting that there has been zero increment capacity of Co-60 source from 2010 to the present.Currently, companies selling irradiation facilities in China mainly include China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group Co. (CGNPC), China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI), Leida Irradiation, Lanfu Irradiation, and China Gold Irradiation.As can be deduced from Figure 1, 80% of Co-60 source irradiation facilities in China were built before 2010, while there were no new constructions after 2016, the increment was basically focused on the original design capacity.Furthermore, it can be deduced from Figure 2 that 75% of 10 MeV e-beams were built after 2010, and the future growth of e-beam facilities is expected to increase further in China.Three reasons are driving this trend.
18-25 years old accounting for 55.68% of the sample, indicating that the survey mainly targeted students, including undergraduates and graduate students.The age group of 25-45 years old accounted for 31%, while those under 18 and over 60 only accounted for 4.17% as verified by their academic background.Nearly 93% of the respondents had a university degree or above.In terms of occupation, the proportion of students is 54%, which aligns with the proportion of the 18-25 age group.Civil servants account for 10%, while full-time staff such as teachers and doctors account for 25%.4.2.2 | Validity analysisValidity research is used to assess the reasonableness and meaningfulness of the research items.The data analysis method of factor F I G U R E 3 Geographical distribution of Co-60 irradiation facilities in China.F I G U R E 4 Geographical distribution of 10 MeV e-beams in China.
tween the questionnaire questions.The statistical results of Case 1, Case 2, Case 4, and Case 6 show significant correlations with gender, with correlation coefficient values of −0.254, −0.379, −0.170, and −0.236, respectively.These values are all negative, indicating a negative correlation.Additionally, the statistical results of Case 4, Case 5, and Case 7 also show significant correlations with gender, with correlation coefficient values of −0.184, 0.175, and 0.216, respectively.In terms of education, only Case 1 and Case 5 show significant correlation, with a correlation coefficient value of 0.189.However, in terms of occupation, only Case 4 shows a significant correlation.

Table 3
provides a description of population characteristics, including gender, age, education, and occupation.The sample consisted of 121 men and 143 women, with a small difference in gender ratio.

Total p Secondary school and below College students Graduate and above
Validity analysis of questionnaire questions.Relevance of demographic characteristics to survey questions.Results of crossover (Chi-square) analysis of gender and survey questions.Results of crossover (Chi-square) analysis of age and survey questions.Results of cross (chi-square) analysis of educational background and survey questions.
Table 7 analysis.As shown in Table 8, in relation to Case 2 (Do you think irradiated food is harmful to human health?), ~22% of con-sumers chose the option "very dangerous."However, there was a sharp difference in the percentage of consumers who chose the option of "not dangerous," 10.53% of consumers have a middle school TA B L E 4 irradiated food.It was identified that consumers' acceptance of irradiated food is directly proportional to their understanding: 42% TA B L E 6 TA B L E 8 *p < .05.; **p < .01.