Consumers on the Internet: ethical and legal aspects of commercialization of personalized nutritionShow others and affiliations
2013 (English)In: Genes & Nutrition, ISSN 1555-8932, E-ISSN 1865-3499, Vol. 8, no 4, p. 349-355
Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Consumers often have a positive attitude to the option of receiving personalized nutrition advice based upon genetic testing, since the prospect of enhancing or maintaining one’s health can be perceived as empowering. Current direct-to-consumer services over the Internet, however, suffer from a questionable level of truthfulness and consumer protection, in addition to an imbalance between far-reaching promises and contrasting disclaimers. Psychological and behavioral studies indicate that consumer acceptance of a new technology is primarily explained by the end user’s rational and emotional interpretation as well as moral beliefs. Results from such studies indicate that personalized nutrition must create true value for the consumer. Also, the freedom to choose is crucial for consumer acceptance. From an ethical point of view, consumer protection is crucial, and caution must be exercised when putting nutrigenomic-based tests and advice services on the market. Current Internet offerings appear to reveal a need to further guaranty legal certainty by ensuring privacy, consumer protection and safety. Personalized nutrition services are on the borderline between nutrition and medicine. Current regulation of this area is incomplete and undergoing development. This situation entails the necessity for carefully assessing and developing existing rules that safeguard fundamental rights and data protection while taking into account the sensitivity of data, the risks posed by each step in their processing, and sufficient guarantees for consumers against potential misuse.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2013. Vol. 8, no 4, p. 349-355
Keywords [en]
Personalized nutrition Direct-to-consumer Nutrigenomic tests Attitudes Consumer acceptance Ethics Legal regulation
National Category
Ethics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-20869DOI: 10.1007/s12263-013-0331-0ISI: 000320733200003Local ID: HLKSkolnäraISOAI: oai:DiVA.org:hj-20869DiVA, id: diva2:611979
Projects
Food4Me
Funder
EU, FP7, Seventh Framework Programme
Note
This study was conducted on behalf of the Food4Me project. Food4Me is the acronym of the EU FP7 project: “Personalised nutrition: an integrated analysis of opportunities and challenges” (Contract no. KBBE.2010.2.3-02, Project no. 265494). The Parties of the project are listed on the Web site of the project, http://www.food4me.org/. The project co-ordination was carried out at University College Dublin, Ireland, Institute of Food and Health; Project Coordinator: Professor Michael J Gibney, Project Manager: Dr. Marianne Walsh. For overall correspondence regarding the Food4Me project: Professor Michael J Gibney, UCD Institute of Food and Health, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland, Tel: +353-1-716-2824, Mail: mike.gibney@ucd.ie.
2013-03-192013-03-192025-10-13Bibliographically approved