Acceptance of insect-based food in Chile: Evidence from a survey using the entomophagy attitude questionnaire (EAQ)

Research interest in the acceptability of insects as food has dramatically grown in recent years. Investigators have studied the antecedents of people willingness to eat whole insects, processed (non-visible) insects, and insect-fed animals as well. Another important topic is the difference between intention to try insect-based foods once, and readiness to adopt these foods in everyday diet. In 2020, the Entomophagy Attitude Questionnaire has been developed as a tool for researchers in this area. It is the only one self-report questionnaire specific to entomophagy, multi-dimensional, and cross-validated in diverse contexts and languages. The current study contributes to further validate this instrument in Spanish, in a novel context such as Chile, and to expand its nomological validity to intention to eat processed insects. In addition, results show that the three components of the EAQ significantly predict participants’ intention to try insect-based foods and, to a lesser extent, intention to add insect-based food in one own’s diet. Limitations of the study, as well as direction for further research are discussed in the paper.     

Children’s selection of emojis to express food-elicited emotions in varied eating contexts

Emojis were suggested for children to be used to measure food-elicited emotions. The present study was aimed to explore the appropriateness of emojis to describe pre-adolescents’ emotions elicited by foods recalled in relation to different evoked eating contexts and to explore related age- and gender differences. Fifty-five boys and forty-one girls aged 9–13 participated to the study. First, subjects were asked to recall, by means of an open-ended question, the foods they had in specific eating contexts: “Most liked food” and “Most disliked food”, “Breakfast”, “Dinner”, “Snack”, “Birthday” and “Novel food”. Then, they were asked to select the emojis appropriate to describe their feelings for the context-related foods by selecting from a list of 92 facial emojis (CATA method). Emojis selected by more than 20% of children in at least one eating context qualified as food-related. In total, 46 emojis resulted as appropriate to describe emotions in different eating contexts. Pre-adolescents used mainly positive emojis, except for the context “Most disliked food”, where mainly negative emojis were used. Most food-related emojis resulted from “Most liked food” and “Most disliked food”, but the context “Birthday” also added some context-specific emojis. The number of selected emojis varied across evoked eating contexts eliciting different foods. Age and gender significantly affected emoji selection across and within foods elicited by varied eating contexts, with girls and 9–11-year-old subjects selecting some emojis more frequently across all contexts, but also within contexts. The approach used in the present study has the potential to be used for the development of a food-related emotion measurement tool for pre-adolescents. Future research aimed at interpreting the meaning of facial emojis is needed and should consider age- and gender differences.     

The impact of evoked consumption contexts and appropriateness on emotion responses

Sensory and consumer scientists are seeing the need to explore broader measures, such as product-driven emotions, to be able to fully understand and satisfy consumers’ demands. However, to date, the consumer methodologies used in food-related emotion research have neglected a crucial element linked to emotions: the consumption context. This is a concern, because consumers’ emotional responses to food are elicited by many other sources apart from the sensory properties of the food itself. The present research aimed to fill in this gap of knowledge by exploring how evoked consumption contexts affect responses obtained from an emotion questionnaire. Two food stimuli (apple and chocolate brownie) and three different consumption contexts (a ‘weekend breakfast’, an ‘afternoon snack’, and ‘after a special dinner’) were used to vary the level of product-context appropriateness. A within-subject design was used in which 157 participants first completed an emotion questionnaire (36 terms, checklist format) in response to each of the evoked consumption contexts (presented in written format). A week later, the same participants completed the same emotion questionnaire while imagining themselves eating an apple or chocolate brownie (shown as images) without any given context (control condition), and then under the three different contexts (random monadic sequential order). When the chocolate brownie was the food stimulus, 20 of 36 emotion responses were significantly different from context to context (including the no-context condition). Conversely, only 9 significant differences were established when apple was the food stimulus. It was also found that frequency of use of positive emotion terms was higher in those consumption contexts that were considered more appropriate, whereas negative emotion terms were more frequently selected when the context was perceived as less appropriate for the product. Taken together, these findings highlight how the context in which a food is consumed (even if imagined) can affect consumers’ emotion responses towards it. More broadly, they demonstrate the reciprocal effect that the context and the product have on the elicited emotion responses, which are not situationally invariant. This research also explored how psychological traits related to emotional eating affected the emotion responses and found that in general higher emotional eaters selected a higher number of emotion terms (positive and negative). This study represents a needed advance in food-related emotion research, and upon replication of the results with other product-context combinations, could offer an easy-to-implement methodology that should more closely match the emotion responses that consumers would elicit in real-life situations while eating and drinking.     

Americans’ acceptance of black soldier fly larvae as food for themselves,their dogs,and farmed animals

This paper investigates consumer attitudes towards Hermetia illucens larvae (aka Black Soldier Fly Larvae; BSFL) and other insects in two forms: dried whole insects and insect flour incorporated into a familiar food. In two studies, we assessed the willingness of American adults to try eating them directly, eating animals fed on them, and feeding them to their pet dog. Participants were significantly more willing to try food made with insect flour than to eat the whole insects, with the same pattern emerging for acceptability of insects in dog food. BSFL were roughly as acceptable as other insects (crickets, mealworms, ants). On average, participants had negative attitudes towards eating BSFL on their own, but the majority were willing to try foods containing BSFL in the form of insect flour or rendered fat. There are also suggestions in the data that indirect routes of consumption (e.g., consuming animals that have eaten insects, or feeding insects to one’s dog) are more acceptable than direct consumption. Our results suggest that BSFL are relatively well-received by consumers and are a promising alternative to the farmed animals more commonly used in pet food.     

Obesity and emotions: Differentiation in emotions felt towards food between obese,overweight and normal-weight adolescents

The current study examined variations in the emotional intensity felt towards food pictures as a function of the participants’ body mass index (BMI). A total of 111 adolescents were instructed to actually imagine eating 30 food products illustrated in a picture and to rate their emotions on a five-point scale. The results showed that emotional intensity felt towards foods was different between the three BMI groups. The intensity of the positive emotions aroused by palatable foods appeared to be stronger in the normal-weight than in the overweight participants, whereas the evaluation of these emotions did not differ between the obese and the normal-weight participants or between the obese and the overweight participants. The intensity of the negative emotions towards palatable foods was higher in the obese than in the overweight and normal-weight participants. For the non-palatable foods, the overweight participants’ negative emotional experiences were less pronounced than those of the normal-weight and obese participants.     

Attractiveness and consumption of finger foods in elderly Alzheimer’s disease patients

Finger foods are helpful for patients with Alzheimer’s disease because they enable them to eat alone with their fingers rather than with cutlery, once this has become too difficult to use. By applying this solution, patients with Alzheimer’s disease can gain in autonomy and rediscover the pleasure of eating on their own. However, the provision of attractive finger foods is essential to ensuring that these patients will be willing to choose and consume them. In this context, the aim of our study was to investigate the attractiveness factors of finger foods to Alzheimer’s disease patients. Three parameters for the formulation of finger foods (the addition of a sauce, changes to shape and contrast) were thus studied as a result of interviews with 19 professionals in nursing homes. They were then tested separately using paired comparison tests in real-life mealtime situations. 114 Alzheimer’s patients living in nursing homes participated in this study. The results showed that the finger foods with a sauce (vs. no sauce) and with two layers (vs. one layer where all ingredients were mixed) were more frequently chosen first and then consumed. By contrast, the shape (moulded vs. squared) of the finger foods had no significant impact on first choice and food consumption. These findings support the view that Alzheimer’s patients are able to make food choices when offered alternatives; choosing first and consuming more of the alternatives most attractive to them. Future research efforts will focus on a more detailed investigation of food attractiveness related to the food perceptions of AD patients.     

Influences of table setting and eating location on food acceptance and intake

This study aimed to determine whether there is an interaction between “small” (i.e., table setting) and “large” (i.e., eating location) scales of the eating environments in affecting food acceptance and consumption. An identical roast chicken was presented at three table-setting conditions: plastic tray (PT), home-style table (HT), and gourmet table (GT) settings both in sensory testing booths and realistic contexts (e.g., classroom for PT, home-style dining room for HT, and restaurant for GT). Participants favored the appearance of food served at a gourmet table setting located in a restaurant setting significantly more than in a sensory testing booth. The participants were more willing to eat the food served using a gourmet table setting in the restaurant setting than in the sensory testing booth, leading to a significant increase in their food consumption. In addition, participants consumed food more slowly and perceived themselves to be less hungry when they ate in realistic contexts rather than in sensory testing booths. In conclusion, our findings demonstrated that food acceptance and intake can vary according to whether the small (table setting) and large (eating location) scales of the eating environments are well-matched or not.     

Acceptance of insects as food in Germany: Is it about sensation seeking,sustainability consciousness,or food disgust?

This study examines the acceptance of insect-based foods by consumers in Germany. The nationwide online survey (N = 516) focused on which factors have the greatest influence on the willingness to consume an insect burger and buffalo worms. In addition to sociodemographic factors, meat consumption and the “classical” variables in the field of entomophagy (familiarity, previous insect consumption, food technology neophobia and food neophobia), the study focuses in particular on the previously unconsidered variables sensation seeking, sustainability consciousness and food disgust. A total of 41.9% of the participants were willing to consume an insect burger. In contrast, only 15.9% of the participants were willing to consume the buffalo worms – a principal ingredient of the insect burger. Hierarchical multiple regressions showed that food disgust was the most important predictor for the acceptance of edible insects, followed by previous insect consumption, food neophobia, gender, sensation seeking and food technology neophobia. The high influence of food disgust shows that not only the explicit disgust for insects is decisive for the consumer readiness of insect-based products, but also the domain specific disgust for food. Despite the strong sustainability awareness of our participants, and contrary to our expectations, sustainability consciousness did not prove to be a significant predictor for the willingness to consume insects. Implications for marketing strategies and educational interventions will be discussed.     

Sensory acceptability and willingness to buy foods presented as having benefits achieved through the use of nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter on a small scale (1-billionth of a meter). Nanomaterials have been used extensively in food production and packaging to improve food safety and eating quality. However, consumer knowledge of nanotechnology is low and the public’s perceptions about its use in foods is poorly understood. This study assessed consumers’ knowledge and attitudes towards food nanotechnology, and measured degree of liking and purchase intent for tasted foods presented as having specific nanotechnology benefits. Participants were 161 young, mostly college-educated adults. They evaluated samples of fresh cherry tomatoes and chocolate ice cream for overall liking and liking of key attributes using 15-cm line scales. They were informed that the first sample of each food had no nanotechnology (control), but the subsequent samples were produced with nanotechnology materials. For the tomatoes, nanoparticles were added to the packaging as an anti-microbial or to extend freshness; for the ice cream, nanoparticles were incorporated into the food matrix to deliver probiotics or reduce icing. In reality, no foods were produced with nanotechnology. Participants also completed surveys on their food attitudes and knowledge of nanotechnology. Results showed that all the samples were highly liked, regardless of whether they claimed to deliver nanotechnology benefits. In addition, most (75–86%) participants were willing to buy the nanotechnology foods; the primary reasons being “sensory appeal” and “nanotechnology benefit” (p < 0.01). These results show that a majority of young, educated consumers had positive attitudes towards foods with nanotechnology and were willing to buy them.     

Why do we like what we like?

Why do we find certain foods more pleasurable than others? Interactions of food components with human biology and with social and eating contexts give rise, in some predictable ways, to relatively stable individual food likes. While sensory and consumer research have traditionally focused on measuring existing likes, a better understanding of their basic determinants can provide ideas and tools to better predict and influence how likes may develop and change. The liking for a particular food or set of foods largely reflects the prevailing cultural environment and personal experiences, which generate variation in the opportunities and likelihood for specific biological predispositions and learning processes to operate with regard to particular foods. These learning processes may be largely influenced by the intrinsic orosensory or nutritional attributes of foods themselves, as well as characteristics of the situational contexts in which foods are experienced. Liking is one factor contributing to the desire to eat a food, and ultimately to food selection. Current knowledge of these processes is briefly reviewed, with suggestions of potential implications for understanding and predicting food acceptance and choice. © 2000 Society of Chemical Industry     

Implicit and explicit evaluations of foods: The natural and transformed dimension

In Western societies, choosing what to eat can be a demanding task due to the excessive availability of food. To make our feeding decisions more complex, our explicit and implicit evaluations of foods may differ as they are multi-attribute stimuli. Previous research has focused on investigating implicit and explicit evaluations towards high and low energy dense foods, the main finding being that participants’ hunger level and dietary habits (restrained eating) modulate such evaluations. In the present study, we investigated whether normal-weight healthy individuals assigned different values to natural and transformed foods depending on implicit (assessed with the Implicit Association Test) or explicit measures (assessed with explicit ratings), and whether participants’ hunger level or dietary habits modulated the responses at both levels. Our results showed that while for natural foods implicit and explicit measures (healthiness) seemed to converge, dietary habits or hunger level did not affect such evaluations. For transformed foods, a dissociation between implicit and explicit measures (healthiness) seemed to emerge, along with a strong modulation of dietary habits and hunger level on the evaluations of such foods. Thus, these findings reveal how the type of food can modulate evaluations at both the implicit and explicit level and highlight a critical role of long-term health consequences and eating patterns in food evaluations.     

The role of peers,siblings and social media for children’s healthy eating socialization: a mixed methods study

Growing rates of childhood obesity constitute a worldwide public health crisis. Consumption of healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables could help to prevent obesity and related non-communicable illness. A prominent role in children’s food-related consumer socialization is played by social agents such as peers, siblings and social media. This study aims to explore the importance of peers, siblings and social media for children’s food-related consumer socialization. Using a parallel, mixed-methods approach, the study finds that peers’ influence on children’s eating behavior is more prominent for children’s healthy eating behavior than the influence of siblings. Siblings’ influence becomes important in the context of eating together with the whole family. Social media contributes to children's consumer socialization by exposing children to food and drink products shown on social media platforms that are frequently used by children to interact with peers and share experiences. Peer, sibling and social media influence can be used in creating marketing strategies to promote healthy eating behavior among children.     

The impact of the means of context evocation on consumers’ emotion associations towards eating occasions

The joint investigation of the product, the consumer, and the consumption context is necessary for furthering the understanding of eating occasions (snacks and main meals), including their construction and enjoyment. The study of people’s experience of eating occasions is less advanced than the understanding of acceptability, preference, and choice of individual food/beverage items and/or their combination in meals. The current research contributes to narrowing this gap by focusing on emotions as a dimension of eating experiences and enjoyment. Under evoked consumption contexts (breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner), the emotion associations for several products (potato crisps, chocolate brownie, and kiwifruit) were obtained from consumers (n = 399) using a questionnaire method. Emotion associations were explored in relation to: (1) the way in which the food stimulus was evaluated by participants (tasting food vs. seeing a food image); (2) the serving presentation of the food stimulus (image of food shown in isolation vs. image of food served on a plate with cutlery); and (3) the means in which the consumption context was evoked (written vs. written and pictorial). Consumers’ product emotion associations when tasting a food stimulus vs. seeing an image of the same food were highly similar. There was some evidence that more specific means of presenting the food stimuli (with tableware vs. without tableware) and consumption contexts (written and pictorially vs. written only) influenced perceived appropriateness of the product in the focal consumption context. This resulted, for example, in a higher frequency of use of negative emotion terms in the less appropriate consumption contexts. Overall, through the use of evoked consumption contexts this research has contributed new understanding of product-specific emotional associations during eating occasions from a methodological approach. In addition to the aforementioned results a more general finding was the apparent reliance by participants on past product experiences when completing the emotion questionnaire.     

Associations between nutritional properties of food and consumer perceptions related to weight management

Consumer perceptions of food (for example, how filling or healthy) influence eating behaviour and appetite control. Therefore approaches to understand the global nutritional attributes of foods that predict the strength of consumer perceptions are of academic and commercial interest. The current research describes the development of a flexible platform for systematically mapping the global nutritional attributes of foods (both objective and perceived) to consumer perceptions of those foods. The platform consists of a database of standardised UK food images (currently n = 300), linked to a catalogue of detailed perceptual, nutritional, sensory, cost, and psychological information (‘nutritional attributes’). The platform also incorporates demographic and psychometric questionnaires to examine the importance of nutritional attributes on consumer perceptions within or between relevant target groups. In the current study, the platform was applied to a sample of dieting and non-dieting British men and women (n = 887) to examine the global attributes of a subset of foods (n = 75) and their association with successful weight management (i.e. supportive of weight loss, weight loss maintenance or prevention of weight gain). Generalised linear models identified energy density, cost (£/kcal), perceived energy content and satiating capacity as the main nutritional attributes underlying dieters’ and non-dieters’ perception of successful weight management food. Additionally, pleasantness, and desire not to (over) eat were uniquely associated with dieters’ perception of food as good for weight management; pleasantness was positively associated with weight management and desire to eat was negatively associated with weight management. Therefore, global nutritional attributes of foods can predict and distinguish the extent consumers’ perceive a food to be related to successful weight management. This platform will be extended to increase the variety of foods and specificity of nutritional attributes in the database suitable for a range of commercial, academic or clinical research applications.     

Using Twitter data for food-related consumer research: A case study on “what people say when tweeting about different eating situations”

Twitter data is emerging as a source of insight regarding food-related consumer behaviour, and as such merit consideration regarding inclusion in the set of methodologies used by sensory and consumer researchers. Contributing to the evaluation of the pros/cons of Twitter as a research tool, we present a case study on the topic: “what people say when they tweet about different eating situations”. Rather than focusing on specific food/beverage products, we consider eating/drinking more widely, and hereby adopt a broader lens through which to evaluate this data gathering platform. Using the search words breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack, a total of 69,961 tweets were retrieved, of which 48,746 corresponded to original tweets and were subject to automated word analysis. However, manual content analysis of a subset of 16,000 tweets randomly selected provided more detailed insight. Mirroring results from past food choice research, information about what was consumed, when, where, with whom, and why was contained within the tweets, hereby confirming the potential of Twitter data as a source of information about food choice decisions. Despite access to free data, labour costs associated with data analysis were high and other limitations were also identified. While the content of tweets was largely free of written emotional expressions, emoticons were used with greater frequency. Some tweets also contained references to the (un)healthiness of foods/beverages being consumed and may be useful for exploring consumer perceptions of health/wellbeing, a topic which, like emotions, is currently attracting considerable attention. Overall, we find that Twitter data merit inclusion in the researcher’s toolbox, but that it is no panacea.     

Prevalence of Listeria species in food products in Isfahan, Iran

A total of 617 meat and meat products, diary, vegetables and ready to eat food samples were collected. Listeria spp. isolated by using USDA method of isolation and L. monocytogenes identified by biochemical and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). The incidence of Listeria spp. was 4.6% in all food samples. L. monocytogenes was found in 1.2% of food samples. It was found that Listeria spp. was present in 6.7% of meat and meat product samples, 1.3% of diary samples, 1.2% of vegetable samples and 12% ready to eat samples. The results presented in this study indicate, the potential risk of eating ready to eat food or raw and undercooked foods.     

CONSUMPTION OF RISKY FOODS AMONG ADULTS AT HIGH RISK FOR SEVERE FOODBORNE DISEASES: ROOM FOR IMPROVED TARGETED PREVENTION MESSAGES

Foodborne disease is of particular concern in populations at risk for severe consequences, including the elderly and persons with immune‐compromising conditions. Using data from the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) Population Survey, we examined the association of risky food consumption with gender, age, immune status, income and education. Gender, age and immune status were associated with consumption of risky foods. More males than females ate at least one risky food while persons aged ≥65 years were less likely than those 18–44 to eat risky foods. In the 18–44 group, those with immunosuppressive conditions were more likely to eat risky foods (P < 0.001). In the ≥65 group, those taking immunosuppressive drugs were more likely than healthy persons to eat risky foods (P < 0.001). Our findings suggest that young adults with immune‐compromising conditions and elderly persons who take immunosuppressive drugs report eating more risky foods than their healthy counterparts.     

Emotional responses to taste and smell stimuli: Self-reports,physiological measures,and a potential role for individual and genetic factors

Taste and olfaction elicit conscious feelings by direct connection with the neural circuits of emotions that affects physiological responses in the body (e.g., heart rate and skin conductance). While sensory attributes are strong determinants of food liking, other factors such as emotional reactions to foods may be better predictors of consumer choices even for products that are equally-liked. Thus, important insights can be gained for understanding the full spectrum of emotional reactions to foods that inform the activities of product developers and marketers, eating psychologist and nutritionists, and policy makers. Today, self-reported questionnaires and physiological measures are the most common tools applied to study variations in emotional perception. The present review discusses these methodological approaches, underlining their different strengths and weaknesses. We also discuss a small, emerging literature suggesting that individual differences and genetic variations in taste and smell perception, like the genetic ability to perceive the bitter compound PROP, may also play a role in emotional reactions to aromas and foods.