Validation of the Food Technology Neophobia Scale in a Chinese sample using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis

Foods made using new technologies may play an important role in food security in countries such as China, which is currently heavily reliant on imports. The Food Technology Neophobia Scale (FTNS) is a 13 item scale that was developed as a means to identify segments of the population who may be resistant to foods made using new technologies. The aim of the current study was to demonstrate the factorial validity of the scale in China, using both Exploratory and Confirmatory factor analyses in different samples, and to report on the level of food technology neophobia in the general population. A total of 1917 Chinese adults completed the FTNS as part of a larger online survey. This sample was split into two separate samples (n = 970; and n = 947) for the purposes of conducting exploratory and confirmatory analyses. Results of exploratory factor analysis did not confirm the four factor structure found by the original developers, indicating instead a two factor structure. One larger factor was interpretable in terms of uncertainty about the necessity and safety of new food technologies; while a smaller factor appeared to be tapping beliefs about benefits of new food technologies. Results of confirmatory factor analysis on sample 2 indicated that a modified 11 item version of the two factor structure had an acceptable fit. Overall, Chinese do not have a high level of food technology neophobia.