Insects as food: Exploring cultural exposure and individual experience as determinants of acceptance
TL;DR: In this article, a cross-cultural qualitative study explores how cultural exposure and individual experience contribute towards the contrasting evaluations of insects as food by those who do and do not eat them.
About: This article is published in Food Quality and Preference.The article was published on 2015-06-01. It has received 360 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Novel food & Entomophagy.
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TL;DR: The literature on the black soldier fly is reviewed, which is capable of efficiently converting a wide variety of organic materials, from food waste to manure, into insect biomass, and which could potentially be milled and converted into a textured protein with a strong flavor.
Abstract: Food futurists accept that sustainability-minded humanity will increasingly incorporate insects as alternative protein. The most studied and easily reared species are not necessarily the most sustainable, acceptable, or delicious. Here, we review the literature on the black soldier fly, Hermetia illucens, which is capable of efficiently converting a wide variety of organic materials, from food waste to manure, into insect biomass. They can be grown and harvested without dedicated facilities and are not pestiferous. Their larvae are 42% crude protein and 29% fat, although they are higher in saturated fats than most insects. They do not concentrate pesticides or mycotoxins. They are already grown and recommended for use as animal feed, but with regional legal restrictions on how this is done. For commercial use in human foods, larvae could potentially be milled and converted into a textured protein with a strong flavor. Their biggest advantage over other insects is their ability to convert waste into food, generating value and closing nutrient loops as they reduce pollution and costs. This general advantage is also their greatest disadvantage, for the social stigmas and legal prohibitions against eating organisms that eat waste are added to extant taboos facing insect consumption.
414 citations
Cites background from "Insects as food: Exploring cultural..."
...Many have reported, to the point of it becoming a consensus, that the best way to convince people in cultures unused to entomophagy to add insects into their diet is to disguise the insect as much as possible, with grinding the insects to a powder being the ideal method [14,15,181]....
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TL;DR: In this paper, a cross-cultural comparison was conducted based on consumers' willingness to eat different insect-based, processed (e.g., cookies based on cricket flour) and unprocessed food.
367 citations
TL;DR: In conclusion, insect tasting sessions are important to decrease food neophobia, as they encourage people to “take the first step” and become acquainted with entomophagy.
315 citations
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that acceptance of the alternative proteins included here is relatively low (compared to that of meat); acceptance of insects is lowest, followed by acceptance of cultured meat, and pulses and plant-based alternative proteins have the highest acceptance level.
292 citations
TL;DR: Empirical work is outlined, theoretically and methodologically informed by a critical appraisal of previous research, with consumers of insect-based convenience foods in the Netherlands, suggesting that insect foods should be analysed according to similar criteria and should be designed with more practical considerations in mind.
257 citations
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14 Feb 1994TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a survey of the focus group research, focusing on the following topics: planning the group study, developing a questioning route, participants in a focus group, moderating skills, and conducting interviews with young people.
Abstract: PREFACE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1. Overview of Focus Groups 2. Planning the Focus Group Study 3. Developing a Questioning Route 4. Participants in a Focus Group 5. Moderating Skills 6. Analyzing Focus Group Results 7. Reporting 8. Styles of Focus Group Research 9. Focus Group Interviews With Young People 10. International and Cross-Cultural Focus Groups Interviewing 11. Telephone and Internet Focus Group Interviewing 12. Focus Group Interviews Within the Organization 13. Modifications of Focus Groups 14. Answering Questions About the Quality of Focus Group Research
12,356 citations
01 Jan 1994
7,153 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a review of empirical results from the psychological literature in a way that provides a useful foundation for research on consumer knowledge is provided by two fundamental distinctions: consumer expertise is distinguished from product-related experience and five distinct aspects, or dimensions, of expertise are identified.
Abstract: The purpose of this article is to review basic empirical results from the psychological literature in a way that provides a useful foundation for research on consumer knowledge. A conceptual organization for this diverse literature is provided by two fundamental distinctions. First, consumer expertise is distinguished from product-related experience. Second, five distinct aspects, or dimensions, of expertise are identified: cognitive effort, cognitive structure, analysis, elaboration, and memory. Improvements in the first two dimensions are shown to have general beneficial effects on the latter three. Analysis, elaboration, and memory are shown to have more specific interrelationships. The empirical findings related to each dimension are reviewed and, on the basis of those findings, specific research hypotheses about the effects of expertise on consumer behavior are suggested.
4,147 citations
TL;DR: The development of a multidimensional measure of motives related to food choice, developed through factor analysis of responses from a sample of 358 adults ranging in age from 18 to 87 years is described.
1,809 citations
TL;DR: The ontogeny of disgust, which the author believes develops during the first 8 years of life, is considered and the idea that feces, the universal disgust object, is also the first is explored, and the mechanisms for the acquisition of disgust are examined.
Abstract: We approach disgust as a food-related emotion and define it as revulsion at the prospect of oral incorporation of offensive objects. These objects have contamination properties; if they even briefly contact an otherwise acceptable food, they tend to render it inedible. Drawing on sources from many cultures, we explore the implications of this perspective on disgust. Some of the issues we consider are the nature of the objects of disgust and why they are virtually all of animal origin, the meaning of oral incorporation, the "belief" that people take on the properties of the foods they eat. and the nature of the contamination response and its relation to the laws of sympathetic magic (similarity and contagion). We consider the ontogeny of disgust, which we believe develops during the first 8 years of life. We explore the idea that feces, the universal disgust object, is also the first, and we examine the mechanisms for the acquisition of disgust. We recommend disgust as an easily studiable emotion, a model for cognitive-affective linkages, and a model for the acquisition of values and culture.
1,734 citations