Abstract
Within most Western societies, insects are considered to be a novel food with rising popularity as an alternative to conventional food sources, due to strong environmental pressures, fast population growth, food insecurity and growing demand for animal-derived food. Although insects are already consumed in several parts of the world, acceptance of edible insects in Western countries is considered very low mainly due to food neophobia and disgust. The main goal of this study was to evaluate the determinants of acceptance of bread incorporating insects. An online survey was conducted on regular consumers of bread which sought to assess their attitudes towards the consumption of edible insects. Results of the survey demonstrated that most participants were unwilling to try bread supplemented with edible insects. Nevertheless, the types of bread with higher acceptance were special-type bread incorporating processed insects. Disgust towards insects was a strong predictor of rejection of insect’s consumption. Through the application of a binary logistic regression model to the responses obtained, the best predictor of acceptance of bread with the incorporation of insects was the willingness to consume insects. Other predictors were gender (males had higher acceptance), consumption of specialty bread and food neophilia.
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Ribeiro, J.C., Soares, A., de Moura, A.P., Cunha, L.M. (2021). Evaluation of Consumers’ Acceptance of Bread Supplemented with Insect Protein. In: Cortez Vieira, M.M., Pastrana, L., Aguilera, J. (eds) Sustainable Innovation in Food Product Design. Food Engineering Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61817-9_8
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