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.

International audienc

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Please refer to any applicable terms of use of the publisher DOI link to the version of record on the publisher's site 1 Consumer acceptance of insects as food: Revision of food neophobia scalesThis study aimed to get insight into the acceptance of insects as food using neophobia descriptors. Data were collected through questionnaires applied to a Spanish-Dominican sample. Models were created using binary logistic regression, and determinants of acceptance of insects as food were obtained. The results reveal that Dominicans presented the highest food neophobia and the lowest acceptance of insects as food. The openness to eat almost anything is the positive determinant in Spain for accepting insects as food, while in the Dominican Republic to overstate the benefits of the new food technologies.Principal component analysis was used to calculate the optimal number of descriptors in the neophobia scales; 3-5 descriptors could be removed. Marketers can use these results to better understand how to market insect-based products considering different contexts.