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Consumers’ acceptance toward whole and processed mealworms: A cross-country study in Belgium, China, Italy, Mexico, and the US

The interest in edible insects as food is growing, both in traditional and non-traditional insect-eating countries given their advantages in terms of sustainability and nutritional content. However, only a few studies have conducted cross-country investigations on the acceptance of including process...

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Autores principales: Tzompa-Sosa, Daylan Amelia, Moruzzo, Roberta, Mancini, Simone, Schouteten, Joachim Jietse, Liu, Aijun, Li, Jie, Sogari, Giovanni
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9833582/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36630382
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279530
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author Tzompa-Sosa, Daylan Amelia
Moruzzo, Roberta
Mancini, Simone
Schouteten, Joachim Jietse
Liu, Aijun
Li, Jie
Sogari, Giovanni
author_facet Tzompa-Sosa, Daylan Amelia
Moruzzo, Roberta
Mancini, Simone
Schouteten, Joachim Jietse
Liu, Aijun
Li, Jie
Sogari, Giovanni
author_sort Tzompa-Sosa, Daylan Amelia
collection PubMed
description The interest in edible insects as food is growing, both in traditional and non-traditional insect-eating countries given their advantages in terms of sustainability and nutritional content. However, only a few studies have conducted cross-country investigations on the acceptance of including processed or whole insects in the diet. Thus, this study aimed to examine to which extent consumers were accepting (i) whole and visible mealworms, (ii) processed mealworms in their diet and (iii) to explore the factors affecting the acceptance level of consuming mealworms in countries with and without entomophagy tradition. An online survey was applied to collect responses (3,006) from five countries–i.e., Belgium, China, Italy, Mexico, and the US–using a quota sampling method. Moreover, an information treatment was included with about half of the participants receiving information about the advantages of edible insects as food (ingredient) and the presence of food safety regulations. Across countries, gender was the main factor affecting acceptance level as men accepted mealworms more than women. Entomophagy tradition mainly explained the differences among countries. Countries with entomophagy traditions (Mexico and China) showed higher acceptance of including whole or processed mealworms in the diet compared to countries with no entomophagy traditions (i.e., Belgium, Italy, and the US). While information and age did affect differently the acceptance of including processed mealworms in countries with entomophagy traditions showing that consumer acceptance was affected by information in Mexico and by age in China. Whereas it was found that younger people (below 42 years old) in countries without entomophagy tradition were more open to accepting processed mealworms in their diet. Moreover, across countries, the acceptance of including processed mealworms was higher compared to whole mealworms. These findings provide insights into which consumer segments to target and the potential impact of information when introducing new insect-based foods in countries with and without entomophagy traditions.
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spelling pubmed-98335822023-01-12 Consumers’ acceptance toward whole and processed mealworms: A cross-country study in Belgium, China, Italy, Mexico, and the US Tzompa-Sosa, Daylan Amelia Moruzzo, Roberta Mancini, Simone Schouteten, Joachim Jietse Liu, Aijun Li, Jie Sogari, Giovanni PLoS One Research Article The interest in edible insects as food is growing, both in traditional and non-traditional insect-eating countries given their advantages in terms of sustainability and nutritional content. However, only a few studies have conducted cross-country investigations on the acceptance of including processed or whole insects in the diet. Thus, this study aimed to examine to which extent consumers were accepting (i) whole and visible mealworms, (ii) processed mealworms in their diet and (iii) to explore the factors affecting the acceptance level of consuming mealworms in countries with and without entomophagy tradition. An online survey was applied to collect responses (3,006) from five countries–i.e., Belgium, China, Italy, Mexico, and the US–using a quota sampling method. Moreover, an information treatment was included with about half of the participants receiving information about the advantages of edible insects as food (ingredient) and the presence of food safety regulations. Across countries, gender was the main factor affecting acceptance level as men accepted mealworms more than women. Entomophagy tradition mainly explained the differences among countries. Countries with entomophagy traditions (Mexico and China) showed higher acceptance of including whole or processed mealworms in the diet compared to countries with no entomophagy traditions (i.e., Belgium, Italy, and the US). While information and age did affect differently the acceptance of including processed mealworms in countries with entomophagy traditions showing that consumer acceptance was affected by information in Mexico and by age in China. Whereas it was found that younger people (below 42 years old) in countries without entomophagy tradition were more open to accepting processed mealworms in their diet. Moreover, across countries, the acceptance of including processed mealworms was higher compared to whole mealworms. These findings provide insights into which consumer segments to target and the potential impact of information when introducing new insect-based foods in countries with and without entomophagy traditions. Public Library of Science 2023-01-11 /pmc/articles/PMC9833582/ /pubmed/36630382 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279530 Text en © 2023 Tzompa-Sosa et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Tzompa-Sosa, Daylan Amelia
Moruzzo, Roberta
Mancini, Simone
Schouteten, Joachim Jietse
Liu, Aijun
Li, Jie
Sogari, Giovanni
Consumers’ acceptance toward whole and processed mealworms: A cross-country study in Belgium, China, Italy, Mexico, and the US
title Consumers’ acceptance toward whole and processed mealworms: A cross-country study in Belgium, China, Italy, Mexico, and the US
title_full Consumers’ acceptance toward whole and processed mealworms: A cross-country study in Belgium, China, Italy, Mexico, and the US
title_fullStr Consumers’ acceptance toward whole and processed mealworms: A cross-country study in Belgium, China, Italy, Mexico, and the US
title_full_unstemmed Consumers’ acceptance toward whole and processed mealworms: A cross-country study in Belgium, China, Italy, Mexico, and the US
title_short Consumers’ acceptance toward whole and processed mealworms: A cross-country study in Belgium, China, Italy, Mexico, and the US
title_sort consumers’ acceptance toward whole and processed mealworms: a cross-country study in belgium, china, italy, mexico, and the us
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9833582/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36630382
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279530
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