The Food Technology Neophobia Scale: A Validity and Reliability Study in Turkish

Abstract

As expected, technology is an inevitable part of the contemporary food industry, and consumers may adopt diverse individual and cultural attitudes toward food products produced using new technology and technological methods. In this regard, the literature offers a previously introduced 13-item instrument, the Food Technology Neophobia Scale (FTNS), to measure such consumer attitudes. Thus, the present study sought the validity and reliability of the FTNS in the Turkish context. Accordingly, we performed relevant analyses on the data of 410 participants using the SPSS and LISREL programs. The findings revealed relatively high item-total correlations (0.65-0.74), Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (0.92), and test-retest correlation coefficient (0.81). Thus, we concluded consistent and reliable scale items. Furthermore, the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) yielded the fit indices indicating acceptable to good model-data fit. The error variances of the items are low, while there are no items with poor factor loading. In conclusion, the 13-item FTNS is a valid and reliable scale to measure food technology neophobia in the Turkish context.