Willingness to pay for reduced risk of foodborne illness: A nonhypothetical field experiment

This paper focuses on estimating willingness to pay for reducing risk of getting foodborne illness using a nonhypothetical field experiment utilizing real food products (i.e., ground beef), real cash, and actual exchange in a market setting. Respondents were given information about the nature of food irradiation. Single-bounded and one and one-half bounded models are developed using dichotomous choice experiments. Our results indicate that individuals are willing to pay for a reduction in the risk of foodborne illness once informed about the nature of food irradiation. Our respondents are willing to pay a premium of about $0.77 for a pound of irradiated ground beef, which is higher than the cost to irradiate the product.