Pesticide Residue Risk and Food Safety Valuation: A Random Utility Approach

A new approach is developed for integrating consumers' risk perceptions with stated purchase behavior when consumption decisions must be made with incomplete information. The application involves health risks from exposure to pesticide residues on fresh produce. Unlike traditional food demand analysis, the present approach treats produce choices as discrete outcomes, resulting in a random utility model. Empirical results from a pilot survey suggest a clear linkage between perceptions and behavior in response to new risk information. Consumers' stated preferences for safer produce were primarily influenced by price differences and perceived risks, not by the technical risk information provided alone. However, the linkage between behavior and valuation was less clear cut. The risk/price tradeoffs entailed by contingent discrete choices indicate high price premia for small risk reductions and little variation in price premium across alternative risk reductions.