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Consumers’ Acceptability and Perception of Edible Insects as an Emerging Protein Source

In recent years in Western Europe, studies on entomophagy have drawn the attention of many researchers interested in identifying parameters that could improve the acceptability of insect consumption in order to introduce insects as a sustainable source of protein into the future diet. Analysing the...

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Autores principales: Ros-Baró, Marta, Sánchez-Socarrás, Violeida, Santos-Pagès, Maria, Bach-Faig, Anna, Aguilar-Martínez, Alicia
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9739510/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36497830
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192315756
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author Ros-Baró, Marta
Sánchez-Socarrás, Violeida
Santos-Pagès, Maria
Bach-Faig, Anna
Aguilar-Martínez, Alicia
author_facet Ros-Baró, Marta
Sánchez-Socarrás, Violeida
Santos-Pagès, Maria
Bach-Faig, Anna
Aguilar-Martínez, Alicia
author_sort Ros-Baró, Marta
collection PubMed
description In recent years in Western Europe, studies on entomophagy have drawn the attention of many researchers interested in identifying parameters that could improve the acceptability of insect consumption in order to introduce insects as a sustainable source of protein into the future diet. Analysing the factors involved in consumer acceptability in the Mediterranean area could help to improve their future acceptance. A cross-sectional study was conducted using an ad-hoc questionnaire in which 1034 consumers participated. The questionnaire responses allowed us to study the areas relevant to acceptance: neophobia, social norms, familiarity, experiences of consumption and knowledge of benefits. Only 13.15% of participants had tried insects. Disgust, lack of custom and food safety were the main reasons for avoiding insect consumption. Consequently, preparations with an appetising appearance need to be offered, with flours being the most accepted format. The 40–59-year-old age group was the one most willing to consume them. To introduce edible insects as food in the future, it is important to inform people about their health, environmental and economic benefits because that could increase their willingness to include them in their diet.
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spelling pubmed-97395102022-12-11 Consumers’ Acceptability and Perception of Edible Insects as an Emerging Protein Source Ros-Baró, Marta Sánchez-Socarrás, Violeida Santos-Pagès, Maria Bach-Faig, Anna Aguilar-Martínez, Alicia Int J Environ Res Public Health Article In recent years in Western Europe, studies on entomophagy have drawn the attention of many researchers interested in identifying parameters that could improve the acceptability of insect consumption in order to introduce insects as a sustainable source of protein into the future diet. Analysing the factors involved in consumer acceptability in the Mediterranean area could help to improve their future acceptance. A cross-sectional study was conducted using an ad-hoc questionnaire in which 1034 consumers participated. The questionnaire responses allowed us to study the areas relevant to acceptance: neophobia, social norms, familiarity, experiences of consumption and knowledge of benefits. Only 13.15% of participants had tried insects. Disgust, lack of custom and food safety were the main reasons for avoiding insect consumption. Consequently, preparations with an appetising appearance need to be offered, with flours being the most accepted format. The 40–59-year-old age group was the one most willing to consume them. To introduce edible insects as food in the future, it is important to inform people about their health, environmental and economic benefits because that could increase their willingness to include them in their diet. MDPI 2022-11-26 /pmc/articles/PMC9739510/ /pubmed/36497830 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192315756 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Ros-Baró, Marta
Sánchez-Socarrás, Violeida
Santos-Pagès, Maria
Bach-Faig, Anna
Aguilar-Martínez, Alicia
Consumers’ Acceptability and Perception of Edible Insects as an Emerging Protein Source
title Consumers’ Acceptability and Perception of Edible Insects as an Emerging Protein Source
title_full Consumers’ Acceptability and Perception of Edible Insects as an Emerging Protein Source
title_fullStr Consumers’ Acceptability and Perception of Edible Insects as an Emerging Protein Source
title_full_unstemmed Consumers’ Acceptability and Perception of Edible Insects as an Emerging Protein Source
title_short Consumers’ Acceptability and Perception of Edible Insects as an Emerging Protein Source
title_sort consumers’ acceptability and perception of edible insects as an emerging protein source
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9739510/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36497830
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192315756
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