One of the current trends in dietary preferences involves the transition to a low-or reduced-meat diet, which is often desirable for health and environmental reasons. This change in dietary preferences requires an in-depth insight into consumers´ preferences towards a variety of alternative/non-meat proteins. This study aimed to investigate the consumers' preferences and willingness to purchase three alternative dietary protein sources, namely plant-, cultured meat-and insect-based proteins in four countries with dissimilar economic development status (the United Kingdom, Spain, Brazil and the Dominican Republic). It also aimed to determine which factors would most influence the willingness to purchase. From a total sample of 729 valid respondents, psychographic variables were analysed. The alternative protein deemed the respondents' most preferred willing to purchase was the plant-based type since that option tended to be more widely available in the market. Among the analysed economic groups, the countries classified in the higher economic groups tended to show more readiness to replace traditional meats for the three alternatives. Models suggest that the respondents regarded the alternative characteristics and/or the attributes compared to meat as being the most important factors that influence their willingness to purchase rather than environmental, convenience or healthy buying decisions, or a low level of neophobia. If the perception of healthiness, safety and nutritiousness increases one-unit for the cultured meat in Brazil, the probability of willingness to purchase would increase 86.82%. One-unit stronger belief in Spanish that plant-based are healthy, safe and nutritious higher the probability of willingness to purchase 68.74%. One-unit higher perceive the characteristics of healthiness, safety and nutritional content of the insectsbased products would increase 68% the probability of willingness to purchase in the United Kingdom, 72% in Brazil and 58% in the Dominican Republic.

Insects as an alternative protein source has gained traction for its advantageous environmental impact. Despite being part of many traditional food cultures, insects remain a novelty in Western cultures and a challenging concept for many. Even though plant-based protein alternatives are not facing the same barriers, product unfamiliarity and limited exposure hinder adoption, which could be detrimental to growth within the food sector. This study is aimed at evaluating plant- and insect-based proteins as alternative dietary proteins. A model indicating the drivers of consumer attitudes towards meat-alternative proteins and consumer willingness to try, buy, and pay a premium was tested. Further, 3091 responses were collected using surveys in nine countries: China, USA, France, UK, New Zealand, Netherlands, Brazil, Spain, and the Dominican Republic. Structural Equation Modelling was used to analyze the data. We found that consumer’s behavioral intentions towards both plant-based and insect-based alternatives are inhibited by food neophobia but to an extent, are amplified by the perceived suitability and benefits of the protein, which in turn are driven by nutritional importance, environmental impact, healthiness, and sensory attributes for both alternatives. The expectation of the nutritional value of meat is the strongest (negative) influence on perceived suitability/benefits of plant-based protein and willingness to try, buy, and pay more for plant-based proteins, but it only has a relatively small impact on the suitability/benefits of insect-based protein and no impact on willingness to try, buy, and pay more for insect-based proteins. Overall, we conclude that consumer adoption towards meat alternatives is complex and is strengthened by the perceived suitability/benefits of the protein and general importance of perceived food healthiness and sustainability. Conversely, adoption is hindered by dietary factors and the experiential importance of meat and food neophobia.

Current environmental and health concerns encourage a shift towards more sustainable diets. A variety of options are currently being investigated to achieve the food security of alternative-to-meat dietary proteins. The food security of alternative to meat proteins will require attention to the availability, the access, the supply stability and the food safety and quality. The aim of this research is to get insight on consumers' food attitudes in order to achieve food security of four alternatives to meat proteins, namely, plant-based proteins, mycoproteins, cultured meat proteins and insect proteins in different development contexts in Spain and the Dominican Republic. In doing so, the research analyses meat consumption, reduces consumers' attitudes using a principal component analysis, predicts first adopters of alternative dietary proteins using a Chi-square test and ranks preferred alternative dietary proteins using a multicriteria decision-making method. The results show that plant-based proteins are the best positioned alternative, while insects are the worst positioned in the Dominican Republic. Gender and education in the Dominican Republic and gender, education and age in Spain are significant factors for the adoption of alternative to meat proteins. Health and convenience attitudes may determine the adoption of alternative dietary proteins in Spain and the Dominican Republic. This research contributes to identifying the consumers' attitudes to encourage the dietary shift to alternative to meat proteins. It can help industry to market alternative-to-meat proteins in different development contexts to achieve food security.

Following the development of aquatic pollution monitoring techniques using metazoan meiofauna (microscopic interstitial invertebrates), the value of this group in the assessment of contaminated terrestrial sites has been investigated. Communities present in a former explosives burning ground were sampled at 30 sites using coring techniques and examined in the laboratory. Nematoda were numerically dominant at each of the sites and were the most diverse invertebrate group present (60 species). Structurally modified assemblages of these were identified and correlated significantly with elevated soil heavy metal concentrations. Assemblages associated with elevated metal concentrations exhibited increased dominance and reduced species richness. Using principal components analyses (PCA) and redundancy analyses (RA), the relationships between individual species, the metals, and the structures of the nematode communities were described. Tolerant and resistant species were also identified. It is concluded that the technique is a valuable method of assessing metal contamination status, and it is recommended that further studies be made of sites contaminated with organic materials.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Cultured meat, as a product of recent advancement in food technology, might become a viable alternative source of protein to traditional meat. As such, cultured meat production is disruptive as it has the potential to change the demand for traditional meats. Moreover, it has been claimed it can be more sustainable regarding the environment and that it is, perhaps, a solution to animal welfare issues. This study aimed at investigating associations between the consumer groups and demographic and psychographic factors as well as identifying distinct consumer groups based on their current willingness to engage with cultured meat. Four European countries were studied: the Netherlands (NL), the United Kingdom (UK), France (FR) and Spain (ES). A sample of 1291 responses from all four countries was collected between February 2017 and March 2019. Cluster analysis was used, resulting in three groups in the NL and UK, and two groups in FR and ES. The results suggest that Dutch consumers are the most willing to engage with cultured meat. Food neophobia and food technology neophobia seem to distinguish the groups the clearest. Moreover, there is some evidence that food cultural differences among the four countries seem to be also influencing consumers’ decision.