Beyond Meat: Alternative Sources of Proteins to Feed the World.

A number of changes and social factors such as the expected population growth, the raising demand for animal proteins, food chain disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic and conflicts are placing food security and sustainable diet at the very centre of the political agenda [...].

The future is crawling: Evaluating the potential of insects for food and feed security.

Current estimations showed that the number of people affected by hunger doubled in the last two years, reaching 9.8% of the global population. According to FAO, in order to satisfy the demand for food in the next few years, it will be necessary to double food production. Moreover, the call for a change in dietary patterns has been raised, showing how the food sector is responsible of 1/3 of climate change where meat-based diets or overconsumption of meat play an important role in the negative environmental impact. Consequently, there is a growing concern in how to achieve the goal of increasing food productions without exploiting environmental resources and to explore the production and use of alternative resources, such as insects. Insects are gaining interests both as food and feed not only to reduce the environmental costs in feed production for common livestock, but also to reduce farmers' dependence on traditional protein sources. In this work we aimed to provide an overview of the state-of-the-art upon insect studies, highlighting the most important results obtained from both an industrial and market perspective. The legislative framework concerning edible insects as food and feed is also analyzed, with the final purpose to highlight recent reforms, relevant case-law as well as unsolved regulatory challenges. From a normative perspective, regulatory efforts are still required to fully take advantage of the potentialities of insects-industry. From a consumer point of view, consumers' willingness to pay a premium is going to be a key issue for economic sustainability of the insect farming chain. To meet the food and feed security challenges, insects will have to be considered all-around, including applications in the food, feed, and other sectors. We believe that this review is an important contribution to the field of food science and will be of interest to researchers, food industry professionals, and policymakers in order to prioritize research questions and help communicate scientific knowledge to a broader audience.

Consumers' Preferences for Chicken Fed on Different Processed Animal Proteins: A Best-Worst Analysis in Italy.

The increase in meat consumption expected in the next decade will require more and more proteins for animal feeding. The recent amendments to the European "BSE Regulation" allow the use of insects and porcine-based meals in poultry farming, providing novel, sustainable substitutes for vegetable fodder. While the technological and nutritional properties of novel feeds containing processed animal proteins are widely recognized, far less is known about consumers' acceptance of meat produced by animals fed on animal-based meals. In the present research, a best-worst survey was applied to estimate consumers' preferences for chicken fed on plants, insects, or porcine-based meals using a sample of 205 Italian consumers. Furthermore, product price, type of farming, and "Free-from" labeling were considered in the analysis to evaluate the relative importance of feed ingredients compared to other important attributes of meats. The results show that the most relevant attributes are type of farming and "Free-from" claims, while type of feed represents the third attribute in order of importance. Notably, both insect and porcine flour are considered as negative characteristics of the product, suggesting that mandatory labeling signaling the use of these feeds would negatively impact on the value of chicken meat.

Stakeholder Beliefs about Alternative Proteins: A Systematic Review.

In recent years, a great deal of research has been conducted on consumers' attitudes and beliefs in favor and against alternative proteins (AP). By contrast, a much more limited research effort has been devoted to understanding stakeholders' point of view. The current work provides a first systematic review of the existing literature on stakeholders' beliefs towards alternative protein sources. Moreover, a secondary content analysis was carried out on the selected studies, providing an overview of the major themes emerging from the existing literature in relation to utilitarian, normative, and control beliefs that stakeholders hold towards AP. Results showed that stakeholders' beliefs are very different from those that emerged from previous research on consumers' views. Overall, stakeholders appear much more aware, compared to consumers, of the implications of using alternative proteins in relation to the main pillars of sustainability (economic, environmental, social). Stakeholders' beliefs were grouped into 13 categories, such as "economics", "consumers", and "rules". With respect to future scenarios, they attribute an important role to political institutions, with respect to both economic and communication aspects, which they consider crucial to overcome persistent consumer skepticism.

The Interaction between Message Sensation Value and Food Neophobia in Communication about Insect-Based Foods: An Experiment with Italian Consumers.

Currently, insects are considered as a promising alternative protein source due to their nutritional content and their environmental sustainability. Notwithstanding this, generally consumers show reluctance towards the introduction of edible insects into their diet, mostly influenced by food neophobia. Persuasive communication strategies (e.g., informational vs. emotional appeals) have been a major topic in consumer behavior research. Scholars often refer to the construct of message sensation value (MSV), which is defined as the intensity of audio, visual, and content features of a message that elicit sensory, affective, and arousal responses. In this work, a computer-based experiment (N = 148) was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of messages based on different levels of MSV in promoting the intention to eat insect-based foods, and interactions between MSV and food neophobia. Results indicate that, MSV, food neophobia, and their interaction significantly affect the willingness to consume insect-based food products with or without visible insects, highlighting novel pathways for segmenting consumers, in order to strengthen the communication effects.

The Effect of Verbal and Iconic Messages in the Promotion of High-Quality Mountain Cheese: A Non-Hypothetical BDM Approach.

To ensure the sustainable development of mountain livestock farming, the adequate remuneration of high-quality dairy products is fundamental. In this sense, communication strategies aimed at promoting mountain products and ensure better positioning and higher market prices are fundamental. The present research seeks to expand the literature regarding consumers' willingness to pay for mountain foods by using an online real auction experiment aimed at evaluating the premium price that consumers are willing to pay for summer over winter mountain cheese, depending on the information provided concerning the taste anticipation or animal welfare. The results showed an overall small premium price given to the higher quality summer cheese; this could be, partially, due to a generally low degree of consumer knowledge about mountain dairy farming. With reference to communication strategies, the results provide evidence about the effectiveness of the rational messages founded upon sensorial characteristics and the anticipated taste of cheese. In addition, this study explored that adding a logo had no main effect on the price premium participants were willing to pay. This may be due to the fact that logos and claims, having a lower information content, are more indicated to lead the choice of consumers with a higher level of awareness. In the conclusion section, policy and agribusiness implications of the findings are provided.

Edible Insects and Global Food Security.

Starting in 2008 and lasting up until 2011, the crisis in agricultural and, in particular, cereal prices triggered a period of riots that spread from the Mediterranean basin to the rest of the world, reaching from Asia to Central America and the African continent. [...].

Perceived Risk of Insect-Based Foods: An Assessment of the Entomophagy Attitude Questionnaire Predictive Validity.

Insects are a promising alternative protein source and their possible integration in the human diet has been extensively studied, also with reference to the degree of consumer acceptability and the main factors determining reluctance among Western consumers. Several studies have also proposed the use of protein meals derived from insects in animal feed as a possible way to promote the development of the insect chain. Consumer attitudes, perceived risks, and intention to eat insect-based foods have been extensively researched, yet the relationships between those factors are still unclear. On a sample of 202 Italian consumers, the present research used the Entomophagy Attitude Questionnaire (EAQ) to analyse the degree of acceptability of insects as food and meat obtained from animals raised on insect-based feeds with a specific focus on the role of attitudes and perceived risk. The research also evaluated the differences in acceptability between different types of animals fed with insects. The results show that the intention to engage in entomophagy is significantly correlated with all three of the EAQ's subscales, as well as with perceived risk. However, the effect of perceived risk does not significantly improve the predictive validity of EAQ with respect to the intention to eat insect-based food. The results also show that the degree of acceptability for different insect meal-reared animals changes among consumers: beef and pork are characterized by a lower degree of acceptability, while poultry and fish are more accepted by consumers.

Assessing the Role of Food Related Lifestyle in Predicting Intention towards Edible Insects.

Although recent literature has shown that switching to an insect-based diet could provide several relevant advantages-from a nutritional, environmental, economic and ecological point of view-the potential growth of insects as everyday food is still unclear. Despite a growing literature on consumer acceptance and product preference for insect-based food, a segmentation of this future and possible market has never been proposed. Therefore, in the present paper, a market segmentation based on the Food Related Lifestyle Scale (FRLS), was performed in order to predict consumers' willingness to eat (WTE) edible insects. Moreover, the role of perceived behavioural control is taken into account. Results shows that the novelty and benefits of insect consumption have generated much interest in edible insects amongst consumers belonging to the Rational cluster, who showed the highest intention to introduce insects in their diet, thus confirming the presence of a niche of "early adopters". In addition, perceived behavioural control was the major driver of intention. Implications for attempts to encourage people to incorporate insect-based foods into their diet are discussed, with special reference to the role of marketing campaigns.

The Role of Health Information in Consumers' Willingness to Pay for Canned Crushed Tomatoes Enriched with Lycopene.

The paper investigated whether information about the health benefit produced by lycopene could influence consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for canned crushed tomatoes enriched with lycopene. An additional aim was to determine whether the main socio-demographic variables, such as sex, age, income and selected attitudinal factors, affect WTP. To this end, a non-hypothetical experimental auction was carried on with five repeated rounds. Results show a relevant impact of information on WTP in the case of lycopene-enriched products, whereas no difference in bids emerges for the conventional product, either on average or at the quantiles. Previous knowledge seems to have a modest influence upon WTP, but it shows a significant interaction with the information shock provided during the experiment, so that the effect of the latter is more pronounced when previous knowledge is low. In addition, age, sex, food technology neophobia, trust in science and implicit attitudes towards food technology significantly affect participants' WTP.

New Trends in the Chinese Diet: Cultural Influences on Consumer Behaviour.

China is one of the most dynamic regions in the world in terms of economic growth and development. Such development has inevitably influenced the structure and habits of Chinese society. Whilst the economic condition of the middle class and high-income segment has steadily improved, cultural changes are also under way: ancient Chinese traditions now include major elements from other cultures, most notably the West. The above scenario is the background to this paper. A structured research-administered survey was developed to investigate the changes in the Chinese consumer food culture: 500 urban participants were randomly selected from six reference cities, covering geographically almost the whole country. This study aims not only to analyze the propensity of consumers to include food products from other countries in their ancient Chinese culinary culture, but also represents an initial attempt to perform a market segmentation of Chinese consumers according to their degree of cultural openness towards non-Chinese food, taking into account socio-demographic, cognitive and psychographic variables.

The effect of communication and implicit associations on consuming insects: An experiment in Denmark and Italy.

It has been widely noted that the introduction of insects in Westerns' diet might be a promising path towards a more sustainable food consumption. However, Westerns' are almost disgusted and sceptical about the eating of insects. In the current paper we report the results of an experiment conducted in two European countries-Denmark and Italy-different for food culture and familiarity with the topic of eating insects. We investigated the possibility to foster people's willingness to eat insect-based food through communication, also comparing messages based on individual vs. societal benefits of the eating of insects. Communication proved to be effective on intention and behaviour, and the societal message appeared to be more robust over time. The communication effect is significant across nation, gender, and previous knowledge about the topic. In addition, we investigated the impact of non-conscious negative associations with insects on the choice to eat vs. not eat insect-based food. Implicit attitudes proved to be a powerful factor in relation to behaviour, yet they did not impede the effectiveness of communication.

Consumer fears and familiarity of processed food. The value of information provided by the FTNS.

Food choice and consumption behaviour are influenced by many interacting factors. In this paper we present an empirical effort to enhance understanding of the neophobia-neophilia forces affecting food choice. Starting from the analysis of consumer preferences for some of the most familiar highly processed foods, namely fat-reduced, functional (enriched drinks and yogurt) and ready-to-eat frozen food, our study investigates the role of traditional demographic variables vs attitudes to new food technologies in predicting the consumption behaviour of a sample of Italians buying such products. Consumer attitudes toward food technologies were collected by means of the Food Technology Neophobia Scale (FTNS). Moreover, this paper explicitly analyses the value of the information provided by the FTNS. Underlying the research is the hypothesis that the FTNS may contribute to provide a comprehensive picture of the driving forces behind consumers' behavioural responses towards processed foods which are the end-result of mature technologies. The four FTNS components, once measured and used independently, help clarify the influence on food choices of each neophobia-neophilia force (risk perception and novelty seeking, media influence, own health and environmental concerns) into a single, comprehensive framework.