Nudging Consumer Behavior with Social Marketing in Portugal: Can Perception Have an Influence over Trying Insect-Based Food?

Social marketing campaigns are widely used to inform, educate, communicate, and promote healthy behaviors that add benefits to the individual, but also to society and the environment. Considering the low cost and high quality of insect-based food, this research aims to identify the main factors which can be used by social marketing campaigns to help people to try new foods, such as insect-based food. Although it is considered an important alternative to protein, there are a few countries that have not experienced it. In many Western countries, insect-based food is perceived as being disgusting. Neophobia is also a barrier to trying these foods. The main goal is to analyze if social marketing campaigns might influence perception (familiarity, preparation, visual, and information). Our model proves this assumption because we obtained high path coefficients, indicating that perception influences social beliefs, individual beliefs, and consumption intention. Thus, they will increase the consumption intention.

Not as Bad as I Thought: Consumers' Positive Attitudes Toward Innovative Insect-Based Foods

Considering that the demand for food will increase by 70% by 2050, consuming insect-based foods appears as a protein alternative due to their nutritional quality and low environmental impact. However, there is a need to investigate the acceptance of these innovative foods, especially in traditional meat-eating markets, such as in Southern Brazil (land of the Gauchos). The purpose of this manuscript is to analyze consumers' attitudes toward innovative insect-based foods. The methodological procedures were divided into two stages. In the qualitative stage, 14 interviews were conducted regarding meat consumption habits. In the quantitative stage, a survey was carried out with 433 consumers. A factor and cluster analysis were performed, and two different groups of consumers were found. The results clearly show a segment with positive attitudes toward insect-based foods. This group had a low degree of neophobia. The products were perceived as not tasty and disgusting, but they were considered modern, with high nutritional value, positive, safe, and beneficial to the environment. Appearance, price, and packaging, combined with flavor, proved to be the attributes considered by consumers as the most important for their acceptance.

COVID-19 Pandemic Is a Call to Search for Alternative Protein Sources as Food and Feed: A Review of Possibilities

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is a global health challenge with substantial adverse effects on the world economy. It is beyond any doubt that it is, again, a call-to-action to minimize the risk of future zoonoses caused by emerging human pathogens. The primary response to contain zoonotic diseases is to call for more strict regulations on wildlife trade and hunting. This is because the origins of coronaviruses such as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), SARS-CoV, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), as well as other viral pathogens (e.g., Ebola, HIV) are traceable to wild animals. Although COVID-19 is not related to livestock animals, the pandemic increased general attention given to zoonotic viral infections—the risk of which can also be associated with livestock. Therefore, this paper discusses the potential transformation of industrial livestock farming and the production of animal products, particularly meat, to decrease the risks for transmission of novel human pathogens. Plant-based diets have a number of advantages, but it is unrealistic to consider them as the only solution offered to the problem. Therefore, a search for alternative protein sources in insect-based foods and cultured meat, important technologies enabling safer meat production. Although both of these strategies offer a number of potential advantages, they are also subject to the number of challenges that are discussed in this paper. Importantly, insect-based foods and cultured meat can provide additional benefits in the context of ecological footprint, an aspect important in light of predicted climate changes. Furthermore, cultured meat can be regarded as ethically superior and supports better food security. There is a need to further support the implementation and expansion of all three approaches discussed in this paper, plant-based diets, insect-based foods, and cultured meat, to decrease the epidemiological risks and ensure a sustainable future. Furthermore, cultured meat also offers a number of additional benefits in the context of environmental impact, ethical issues, and food security.

Opinions on Insect Consumption in Hungary

The aim of the study was to assess knowledge and opinion in the Hungarian population about the consumption of insect-based food. The questionnaire was filled in by 414 respondents. Their knowledge of edible insect consumption in different countries was average (score 4) or above on a scale of 1 (totally disagree) to 7 (totally agree). Their willingness to consume insect-based food was low, usually below average. Significantly higher scores were attained by men than women, by respondents with a university degree than those who graduated from secondary school, and the highest scores were attained by people of 30–39 age group. However, the effects of residence (town or village) and income were not significant. As Hungarians are not traditional insect consumers, there is a significant emotional response of disgust regarding food made from insects and, as insect food is not commercially available, no significant increase in insect consumption is expected in the near future.

Quality and Nutritional/Textural Properties of Durum Wheat Pasta Enriched with Cricket Powder

Edible insects have always been consumed by humans and nowadays they are looked at with interest by the research community as a means to produce food at low environmental cost for a growing and increasingly demanding population. A large number of different species are edible, and they can contribute fats, protein, fibre, vitamins, and minerals to the human diet. The absence of specific legislation on the use of insects as food, coupled with the general population’s disgust at the idea of eating insects, are among the limiting factors for the development of insect farming in developed countries. Several consumer studies have concluded that hiding insects in traditional foods can increase people’s willingness to eat insect-based foods. Cereal-based foods such as bread, bakery products, pasta, etc., being so popular worldwide and so widely accepted by the population, have been used by researchers as a carrier for the introduction of different percentages of insect flours to improve their nutritional qualities. The research by Duda et al. on “Quality and Nutritional/Textural Properties of Durum Wheat Pasta enriched with Cricket Powder” is the first recent scientific contribution to the understanding of the nutritional quality and technological effects of the introduction of insect flour in a popular food such as durum wheat pasta.