Is cultured meat a promising consumer alternative? Exploring key factors determining consumer's willingness to try, buy and pay a premium for cultured meat.

Cultured meat is a relatively new product, enjoying consumer appreciation as a more sustainable meat option. The present study builds on a sample from a diverse set of countries and continents, including China, the US, the UK, France, Spain, Netherlands, New Zealand, Brazil, and the Dominican Republic and uses partial least square structural equation modelling. The proposed conceptual model identified key factors driving and inhibiting consumer willingness to try, buy, and pay a price premium for cultured meat. Results relate to the overall sample of 3091 respondents and two sub-sample comparisons based on gender and meat consumption behaviour. Food neophobia, having food allergies, being a locavore, and having concerns about food technology were found to be inhibiting factors towards willingness to try, buy, and pay a price premium for cultured meat. Food curiosity, meat importance, and a consumer's perception of cultured meat as a realistic alternative to regular meat were found to be important drivers that positively impacted consumers' willingness to try, buy and pay more. Best practice recommendations address issues facing marketing managers in food retail and gastronomy.

Understanding Key Factors Influencing Consumers' Willingness to Try, Buy, and Pay a Price Premium for Mycoproteins.

Mycoprotein is a fungal-based meat alternative sold in food retail in various countries around the world. The present study builds on a multi-national sample and uses partial least square structural equation modeling. The proposed conceptual model identified key factors that are driving and inhibiting consumer willingness to try, buy, and pay a price premium for mycoprotein. The results relate to the overall sample of 4088 respondents and to two subsample comparisons based on gender and meat consumption behavior. The results show that the biggest drivers of willingness to consume mycoprotein were healthiness, followed by nutritional benefits, safe to eat, and sustainability. Affordability and taste had mixed results. Willingness to consume mycoprotein was inhibited if nutritional importance was placed on meat and, to a lesser extent, if the taste, texture, and smell of meat were deemed important. Best practice recommendations address issues facing marketing managers in the food industry.

Identifying Consumer Groups and Their Characteristics Based on Their Willingness to Engage with Cultured Meat: A Comparison of Four European Countries.

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.

Drivers and Inhibitors in the Acceptance of Meat Alternatives: The Case of Plant and Insect-Based Proteins.

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.

Evaluation of portable near-infrared spectroscopy for organic milk authentication.

Organic products are vulnerable to fraud due to their premium price. Analytical methodology helps to manage the risk of fraud and due to the miniaturization of equipment, tests may nowadays even be rapidly applied on-site. The current study aimed to evaluate portable near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) in combination with chemometrics to distinguish organic milk from other types of milk, and compare its performance with benchtop NIRS and fatty acid profiling by gas chromatography. The sample set included 37 organic retail milks and 50 non-organic retail milks (of which 36 conventional and 14 green 'pasture' milks). Partial least squares discriminant analysis was performed to build classification models and kernel density estimation (KDE) functions were calculated to generate non-parametric distributions for samples' class probabilities. These distributions showed that portable NIRS was successful to distinguish organic milks from conventional milks, and so were benchtop NIRS and fatty acid profiling procedures. However, it was less successful when 'pasture' milks were considered too, since their patterns occasionally resembled those of the organic milk group. Fatty acid profiling was capable of distinguishing organic milks from both non-organic milks though, including the 'pasture' milks. This comparative study revealed that the classification performance of the portable NIRS for this application was similar to that of the benchtop NIRS.

Revised state diagram of Laponite dispersions.

We propose a state diagram of charged disk-like mineral particle (Laponite) dispersions as a function of the Laponite concentration (C) and the concentration of added salt (C(s)), based on simple observation and light-scattering measurements. At low C or high C(s) the dispersions separate into two domains due to sedimentation of Laponite aggregates, while at high C and low C(s) they form homogeneous gels that do not flow upon tube reversal. The aggregation rate and the structure factor of the Laponite dispersions is determined with light scattering as a function of C and C(s). We discuss in detail the controversy on the origin of gelation of Laponite dispersions in the absence of added salt. We argue that aggregation rather than glass formation causes gelation.

Influence of pyrophosphate or polyethylene oxide on the aggregation and gelation of aqueous laponite dispersions.

The influence of pyrophosphate or polyethylene oxide (PEO) on the aggregation and gelation of dispersions of model disklike clay particles (Laponite) is studied using light scattering and rheology. Pyrophosphate adsorbs onto the positively charged rim and inhibits bond formation between the rim and the negatively charged faces of the particles. At low concentrations of pyrophosphate the aggregation of Laponite is only retarded, without significant modification of the structure of the aggregates and gels. The decrease of the aggregation rate can be explained by an increase of the energy barrier to the formation of bonds in proportion to the pyrophosphate concentration. Addition of a large amount of pyrophosphate leads to the breakup of Laponite aggregates and gels. PEO adsorbs onto the Laponite particles and inhibits aggregation by steric hindrance. The reduction of the aggregation rate depends on the molar mass and is maximal at about 1000 g/mol. Higher molar mass PEO bridges between the particles and leads to the formation of clusters or a weak gel immediately after mixture.