Dataset Information

Australian Consumers' Awareness and Acceptance of Insects as Food.

ABSTRACT: Insects have long been consumed as part of the diets of many Asian, African, and South American cultures. However, despite international agencies such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations advocating the nutritional, environmental, and economic benefits of entomophagy, attitudinal barriers persist in Western societies. In Australia, the indigenous ‘bush tucker’ diet comprising witchetty grubs, honey ants, and Bogong moths is quite well known; however, in most Australian locales, the consumption of insects tends to occur only as a novelty. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the awareness and acceptance of insects as food. An online survey of 820 consumers found that 68% of participants had heard of entomophagy, but only 21% had previously eaten insects; witchetty grubs, ants, grasshoppers, and crickets were the most commonly tasted insects. Taste, appearance, safety, and quality were identified as the factors that were most likely to influence consumer willingness to try eating insects, but consumer attitudes towards entomophagy were underpinned by both food neophobia (i.e., reluctance to eat new or novel foods) and prior consumption of insects. Neophobic consumers were far less accepting of entomophagy than neophilic consumers, while consumers who had previously eaten insects were most accepting of insects as food. Incorporating insects into familiar products (e.g., biscuits) or cooked meals also improved their appeal. Collectively, these findings can be used by the food industry to devise production and/or marketing strategies that overcome barriers to insect consumption in Australia.

SUBMITTER: Wilkinson K

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6023301 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Australian Consumers' Awareness and Acceptance of Insects as Food.

Wilkinson Kerry K Muhlhausler Beverly B Motley Crystal C Crump Anna A Bray Heather H Ankeny Rachel R

Insects 20180419 2

Insects have long been consumed as part of the diets of many Asian, African, and South American cultures. However, despite international agencies such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations advocating the nutritional, environmental, and economic benefits of entomophagy, attitudinal barriers persist in Western societies. In Australia, the indigenous ‘bush tucker’ diet comprising witchetty grubs, honey ants, and Bogong moths is quite well known; however, in most ...[more]

PMID: 29671798

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Project description:Due to the environmental and nutritional benefits of insects, their consumption would be one of the solutions to feed the growing human population. Despite the increasing interest in the use of insects as food and feed, consumer acceptance is the major obstacle to successful implementation in Western countries and we studied the factors that influence consumer acceptance in a group of university students from Germany and the Netherlands. In this exploratory research, a survey was conducted (n = 222). Socio-demographic and psychological factors were established from a theoretical review. In addition, we elaborated on questions regarding information on the health and environmental benefits of consuming insects. Initially, the data obtained are presented through descriptive statistics. The influence of the socio-demographic and psychological factors, and the information on the willingness to accept insects as animal feed and human food was analyzed using correlations and multiple linear regressions. Results showed more willingness to accept insects as animal feed than in human food. The acceptance among German and Dutch students seems to be driven by issues similar to those in other European countries, such as visual aspects and knowledge about the benefits. The effect of the information on willingness constitutes an important finding of this study, especially for the use of insects in animal feed, since most of the previous studies have focused on the use of insects as human food. Our data support the need to inform and educate consumers about the environmental and health benefits of entomophagy. We conclude that effective efforts to implement entomophagy could increase the level of familiarity with the insect food and inform (or educate) consumers about its benefits. Insights from this study are useful to address studies focusing on specific segments of possible early adopters and consequently addressing communication strategies in this market segmentation.

Project description:ObjectivesWe aimed to identify the potential of behaviour change strategies to effectively increase consumers' risk awareness, behavioural intention, and preventive food-handling behaviour to reduce the transmission risk of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria through food. The applied strategies targeted knowledge and determinants of the health action process approach (HAPA). We tested techniques that are expected to increase knowledge, risk perception, and positive outcome expectancy (Study 1) as well as those that increase planning and coping self-efficacy (Study 2) in two randomised control trials.MethodsIn Study 1 (N = 328), a 2 × 2 between-subject design was employed to investigate the effects of an educational video about the spread of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria and a personalised risk message on knowledge, risk perception, outcome expectancy and consequently on intention regarding safe food-handling behaviour. In Study 2 (N = 129), we used a 2 × 2 design to examine to what extent goal setting (implemented vs. not implemented) and time (pre- vs. post-test) affected planning, coping self-efficacy, and preventive food-handling behaviour.ResultsIn Study 1, we found that the video increased knowledge and the perceived susceptibility of risk compared to the control video. We found no increase on the dependent variables after receiving the personalised risk message. In Study 2, goal setting significantly improved safe food-handling behaviour compared to the control condition. Moreover, participants in the goal-setting condition showed more planning of safe food-handling measures and of dealing with emerging barriers than participants in the control condition.ConclusionsThese findings demonstrate that the delivery of an educational video on the spread of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria is a useful strategy to increase risk awareness, whereas goal setting presents a promising approach to improve food-handling behaviour. Following the HAPA, an additional effective behaviour change technique is required that decreases negative outcome expectancies and improves coping self-efficacy, thereby further improving intention and behaviour.

Dataset Information

Australian Consumers' Awareness and Acceptance of Insects as Food.

Publications

Australian Consumers' Awareness and Acceptance of Insects as Food.

Similar Datasets

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