Role of labels referring to quality and country of origin in food consumers’ decisions

Within a survey made of Hungarian awareness of, attitudes towards, and preferences for food labels and pricing, this study focused on consumers’ reactions to quality and country of origin labels. Data were collected with a standard questionnaire, face-to-face interviews (1000 participants) in the respondents’ home. It became obvious that consumers were looking for information about quality (rating its importance at 4.04) on packages, but information about origin (3.94) and production (3.89) was also important to them. The capability of respondents to spontaneously recall country of origin and quality labels was very limited: 35.5% of all respondents could not name any such labels. The best known label was “Hungarian Product” (30.5%), which was recognized by up to 90% of the respondents after they were shown it. Many consumers were ready to pay premium for products bearing this label (31.7%). According to our results, information about quality is important to consumers, but they do not look for it deliberately, and only a few consumers ascribe a higher value to products with labels bearing this information. There is a pressing need to increase consumers’ confidence for trademarks through dissemination of reliable information

Szimultán hasnyálmirigy-vese transzplantáció helye a diabetes mellitus kezelésében

The life expectancy of patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus is inferior to that of patients with some malignancies. Simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplantation is the procedure providing the best survival results among all options of renal replacement therapy. The operative techniques and immunosuppresion have been standardized in the last decade. Although the number of transplantable organs falls behind the need, simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplantation is the method of choice for the eligible patients. The results of the two Hungarian simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplantation programs are in accordance with data published in the international literature. Orv. Hetil., 2013, 154, 850-856

Consumer attitudes toward genetic testing and personalised nutrition in Hungary

The aim of the research is to reveal the most important influencing factors that lead to consumers’ acceptance of personalised nutrition based on genetic testing. A nationwide representative questionnaire-based consumer survey was carried out involving 500 people in Hungary in 2014. The results show that consumers are divided over the new technology. Only 27.0% of the respondents have a positive attitude toward the new possibility, and they would be glad to use this new service in order to stay healthy. The rate of those who would have a genetic test because they want to follow a diet tailored to their needs is very low (16.0%). Our result suggested that the most important factors in consumer preference on personalised nutrition are positive health message and perceived risk/benefits, gender, and educational level. The most important factors regarding the attitude toward genetic testing are easy usage, benefits, the agreement among experts, and educational level