Consumer acceptance of novel food technologies.

Food industry and engineering—Quo vadis?

Microgreens are an emerging functional food crop with promise for sustainably diversifying global food systems, facilitating adaptations to urbanization and global climate change, and promoting human health. Previous work suggests microgreens have high nutritional quality, low environmental impacts, and broad consumer acceptance. For better reception into the global food system and increased per capita consumption, research is needed to elucidate consumer acceptance of various microgreens species, including factors contributing to their acceptance or lack thereof. Using a consumer panel (n = 99), this study evaluated consumer sensory perception and acceptability of six microgreens species (arugula, broccoli, bull's blood beet, red cabbage, red garnet amaranth, and tendril pea), and potential drivers and barriers to consumer acceptance. All microgreens species received high mean liking scores for acceptability by consumers (means ranged from highly acceptable to slightly acceptable), with more distinct differences across microgreens species for flavor and overall acceptability, which appeared to be driven by specific sensory properties. Data from principal component analysis demonstrated that high acceptability scores were associated with higher intent to purchase microgreens and negatively associated with food neophobia. Participants indicated that factors such as knowledge and familiarity of microgreens, cost, access/availability, freshness/shelf life, among other factors, influence their intention to purchase microgreens. These findings suggest that further integration of microgreens into the global food system will be met with high consumer acceptability, but needs to be aligned with enhanced consumer education regarding microgreens, as well as considerations of cost, availability/access, and freshness/shelf life. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: Researchers investigated consumer sensory perception and acceptability of six microgreens species (arugula, broccoli, bull's blood beet, red cabbage, red garnet amaranth, and tendril pea), and potential drivers and barriers to consumer acceptance. All microgreens tested had high consumer acceptability, but certain factors such as sensory perception and food neophobia impacted their acceptability. Additionally, participants indicated that factors such as knowledge, access and availability, cost, freshness, and shelf life may impact the purchasing of microgreens and thus are important factors to consider for further integration of this emerging functional food crop into the global food system.

<scp>IFST</scp> vision for a <scp>UK</scp>‐wide national food strategy

Demand-side constraints on the introduction of new food technologies: The case of food irradiation

New Genomic Techniques (NGTs) offer promising opportunities to improve agricultural productivity and sustainability; however, their public acceptance remains uncertain. Guided by the Tripartite Attitude Model, this study tested hypotheses concerning psychological and demographic predictors of attitudes toward NGT food products. This study examined demographic and psychological (i.e., cognitive, affective, and behavioral) factors influencing attitudes toward NGT food products in a Polish sample (N = 850; aged 18–88). Participants provided information on their expectations regarding NGT foods, their opinions on the changes that the introduction of NGT foods would bring, their willingness to try NGT products, and their opinions on the effectiveness of encouragement to the consumption of NGT products, along with assessments of conspiracy beliefs, attitudes toward science, food neophobia, food technology neophobia, disgust sensitivity, consumer awareness, and political orientation. Results revealed that older participants showed lower willingness to try NGT foods compared to younger groups. Moreover, positive attitudes toward science, openness to new foods, and subjective consumer awareness were positive predictors of favorable attitudes toward NGT foods. In contrast, food technology neophobia and conspiracy beliefs were negative predictors of these attitudes. Our findings emphasize the importance of psychological and sociodemographic contexts in shaping consumer acceptance of innovative food technologies, highlighting the need for targeted communication strategies to address skepticism and enhance trust.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1038/s41598-026-48713-x.

Despite the widespread influence of the burgeoning digital economy on agricultural productivity in recent years, China's food system confronts numerous challenges. Notably, research exploring the digital economy's impact on food system resilience remains scarce, and the pivotal role of industrial agglomeration in this context remains unclear. Therefore, this article is based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2021, this paper empirically examines the direct effect, the mechanism of action, and the spatial spillover effect of the resilience of a digital economy-enabled food system using a double fixed-effects model, mediated-effects model, and spatial econometric model. The results show the following: (1) The resilience of China's urban food system shows obvious spatial differences, but the overall trend in improvement requires attention. (2) The development of a digital economy has a facilitating effect on the level of resilience of the food system, and industrial agglomeration induces an intermediary effect. (3) The digital economy has a significant positive spatial spillover effect on the resilience of the food system; i.e., the digital economy can improve the resilience of the food system in the region and the neighboring regions. Accordingly, policy recommendations have been put forward to improve infrastructure construction and promote the development of digital villages; strengthen the construction of industrial agglomerations and promote the enhancement of the quality and efficiency of industries; and promote the development of regional linkages and build a solid foundation for food security.

Role of trust and hedonism in driving novel food technology acceptance

Purpose This study maps the recent scholarly landscape on consumer acceptance of edible insects and insect-based foods and empirically investigates factors shaping Indian urban households' behavioral intention to accept insect-based foods. Specifically, it examines cognitive, normative, psychological and cultural determinants of attitude and intention and tests the moderating role of cultural influence. Design/methodology/approach A two-pronged approach was adopted. A systematic review of relevant literature was conducted using the Scopus database in August 2025, covering the timeframe 2018–2025, and included only peer-reviewed English-language articles, which were screened following PRISMA guidelines. A total of 58 articles were selected and analyzed using the Theory-Context-Characteristics-Methodology (TCCM) framework to systematically map theoretical foundations, contextual settings, key characteristics and methodological approaches in the literature. Bibliometric analyses were performed using Bibliometrix R and VOSviewer to identify publication trends, key authors, influential journals, keyword co-occurrences and country-level citation patterns. Subsequently, a survey of 300 urban households in Coimbatore, India, was conducted to assess consumer experience, perceptions and disgust toward insect-based foods. A conceptual model based on the Theory of Planned Behavior was developed and tested using partial-least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) in SmartPLS to identify determinants of consumer attitudes and behavioral intentions. Findings Bibliometric mapping shows an increasing publication trend since 2018, with food-science and consumer-behaviour journals most active and recurring keyword clusters around consumer attitudes, neophobia, disgust and sustainability. PLS-SEM results indicate that Food Neophobia and Disgust Sensitivity are the strongest predictors of attitude toward insect consumption. Knowledge and Awareness, Perceived Benefits, Moral Norms, Subjective Norms and Perceived Behavioral Control also significantly influence attitude. Attitudes, in turn, significantly predict behavioral intentions, with cultural influence moderating this relationship. Overall, the model demonstrates strong explanatory power, accounting for approximately 72.1% of the variance in behavioral intention. Practical implications Findings suggest that interventions should prioritize reducing psychological barriers such as neophobia and disgust while also providing clear guidance for policymakers, food producers and marketers to design appropriate products (e.g. processed forms), implement targeted awareness campaigns and develop strategies to improve consumer acceptance. These insights can inform policies aimed at strengthening food security and sustainability while supporting commercial stakeholders to deliver market-ready products aligned with Indian consumer preferences and to gradually normalise sustainable alternative proteins within mainstream Indian diets. Social implications Understanding barriers and drivers of acceptance at the household level supports evidence-based strategies for integrating insect-based proteins into sustainable food systems and contributes to broader policy debates on alternative protein adoption. Originality/value By combining bibliometric mapping with primary empirical testing in an Indian urban context, this study integrates macro-level knowledge trends with micro-level behavioral evidence, addressing a significant literature gap on entomophagy from a South Asian perspective and offering context-specific insights for theory and practice. The study further contributes by extending the Theory of Planned Behavior with culturally relevant constructs such as disgust sensitivity, food neophobia and cultural influence to examine consumer acceptance of insect-based foods in India, an underrepresented region in this domain of research.

by Philip E. Nelson, 2007 World Food Prize Laureate; Professor Emeritus, Food Science Dept., Purdue Univ. Just as society has evolved over time, our food system has also evolved over centuries into a global system of immense size and complexity. The commitment of food science and technology professionals to advancing the science of food, ensuring a safe and abundant food supply, and contributing to healthier people everywhere is integral to that evolution. Food scientists and technologists are versatile, interdisciplinary, and collaborative practitioners in a profession at the crossroads of scientific and technological developments. As the food system has drastically changed, from one centered around family food production on individual farms and home food preservation to the modern system of today, most people are not connected to their food nor are they familiar with agricultural production and food manufacturing designed for better food safety and quality. The Institute of Food Technologists-a nonprofit scientific society of individual members engaged in food science, food technology, and related professions in industry, academia, and government-has the mission to advance the science of food and the long-range vision to ensure a safe and abundant food supply contributing to healthier people everywhere. IFT convened a task force and called on contributing authors to develop this scientific review to inform the general public about the importance and benefits of food science and technology in IFT's efforts to feed a growing world. The main objective of this review is to serve as a foundational resource for public outreach and education and to address misperceptions and misinformation about processed foods. The intended audience includes those who desire to know more about the application of science and technology to meet society's food needs and those involved in public education and outreach. It is IFT's hope that the reader will gain a better understanding of the goals or purposes for various applications of science and technology in the food system, and an appreciation for the complexity of the modern food supply. Abstract: This Institute of Food Technologists scientific review describes the scientific and technological achievements that made possible the modern production-to-consumption food system capable of feeding nearly 7 billion people, and it also discusses the promising potential of ongoing technological advancements to enhance the food supply even further and to increase the health and wellness of the growing global population. This review begins with a historical perspective that summarizes the parallel developments of agriculture and food technology, from the beginnings of modern society to the present. A section on food manufacturing explains why food is processed and details various food processing methods that ensure food safety and preserve the quality of products. A section about potential solutions to future challenges briefly discusses ways in which scientists, the food industry, and policy makers are striving to improve the food supply for a healthier population and feed the future. Applications of science and technology within the food system have allowed production of foods in adequate quantities to meet the needs of society, as it has evolved. Today, our production-to-consumption food system is complex, and our food is largely safe, tasty, nutritious, abundant, diverse, convenient, and less costly and more readily accessible than ever before. Scientific and technological advancements must be accelerated and applied in developed and developing nations alike, if we are to feed a growing world population.

Efforts to reduce the environmental burden of agri-food systems have fostered technological advances to enable a transition towards more sustainable production and diets. Such a transition is only possible if consumers are willing to accept foods produced using novel technologies. Previous research on consumer acceptance has generally focused on individual technologies in isolation, rendering comparisons across studies difficult, and mostly considered average acceptance without devoting attention to individual differences among consumers. Additionally, available data overwhelmingly pertained to European and North American consumers, whereas much less is known about consumer perception in non-Western countries. Against this backdrop, this study examined consumer acceptance and perception of a wide range of novel, sustainable food technologies in four countries (Australia, India, Singapore, and the USA, N = 2494 in total) using survey methodology. For each technology, willingness-to-consume (WTC, operationalized as expected frequency of consumption), emotional associations, and situational appropriateness responses were collected. All measures revealed major differences in consumer perception of novel food technologies, identifying three groups: 1) technologies with high consumer acceptance comprising vegetables from urban farming and vegetables packaged in a modified atmosphere; 2) technologies with medium consumer acceptance comprising fish reared in aquaponics systems, plant-based alternatives to meat and dairy, and gene-editing; 3) technologies with low consumer acceptance comprising insect ingredients, cell-cultured meat and cell-cultured fish. Technologies in the high acceptance group were perceived as healthier and apt to move one's diet in a more sustainable direction, whereas consumers had issues associating specific benefits to the less accepted technologies. Cross-cultural differences were identified. Most notably, Indian consumers responded more positively to all novel food technologies, especially compared to consumers in the US and Australia. Finally, four pan-national consumer segments were identified based on their overall patterns of acceptance towards novel food technologies. The segments varied primarily in terms of baseline WTC (low, medium, and high), indicating that consumers tended to accept or reject novel food technologies regardless of their nature. The segment characterized by a high acceptance included only about a fifth of the consumers, showing that WTC towards novel food technologies for most consumers ranged from moderate to outright rejection. Collectively, the findings of this study suggest that consumers' general skepticism regarding technologies in the food domain remains a significant challenge towards achieving more sustainable diets.

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Factors influencing public acceptance of innovative food technologies and products

Despite the widespread influence of the burgeoning digital economy on agricultural productivity in recent years, China’s food system confronts numerous challenges. Notably, research exploring the digital economy’s impact on food system resilience remains scarce, and the pivotal role of industrial agglomeration in this context remains unclear. Therefore, this article is based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2021, this paper empirically examines the direct effect, the mechanism of action, and the spatial spillover effect of the resilience of a digital economy-enabled food system using a double fixed-effects model, mediated-effects model, and spatial econometric model. The results show the following: (1) The resilience of China’s urban food system shows obvious spatial differences, but the overall trend in improvement requires attention. (2) The development of a digital economy has a facilitating effect on the level of resilience of the food system, and industrial agglomeration induces an intermediary effect. (3) The digital economy has a significant positive spatial spillover effect on the resilience of the food system; i.e., the digital economy can improve the resilience of the food system in the region and the neighboring regions. Accordingly, policy recommendations have been put forward to improve infrastructure construction and promote the development of digital villages; strengthen the construction of industrial agglomerations and promote the enhancement of the quality and efficiency of industries; and promote the development of regional linkages and build a solid foundation for food security.

An increasing number of novel food technologies have been developed to meet consumers' growing desire for safe and high-quality foods. However, consumers can be cautious of novel food technologies, and their acceptance cannot be guaranteed. Food Technology Neophobia Scales (FTNS) have been proven to be an effective tool to predict consumers' behavior toward novel food technologies in a range of individual countries, but not for cross-national contexts. To fill the gap, this study designed a survey involving 604 Chinese and 614 New Zealand respondents, investigating the influence of consumers' food technology neophobia (FTN) on their acceptance of food technologies. Chinese respondents' FTNS score (50.62) was lower than that of New Zealand respondents (55.02), which was in line with the finding that Chinese respondents' acceptance of all tested food technologies was higher than New Zealand respondents (0.34-0.86 in a Likert-7 scale). Chinese respondents' acceptance was determined by their perception of benefits, whereas New Zealand respondents were influenced by their perception of both benefits and risks. The findings conclude that FTNS is a valid tool to reflect consumers' acceptance of novel food technologies in cross-national contexts, although the influence of FTN varies among consumers from different countries. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: China has the largest food market, and New Zealand is a leading food exporter. Understanding their consumers' acceptance of and attitudes toward food technologies will help food companies implement appropriate strategies in developing and using novel technologies. Because FTNS first was constructed in 2008, it has been applied in Australia, Italy, Canada, Finland, Korea, China, Chile, Brazil, and Uganda; the findings of this study will allow these individual studies on FTNS to better connect, help food companies predict consumer acceptance of food technologies in the global market, and help them identify early adopters of novel food technologies in new food markets.

Perceived naturalness, disgust, trust and food neophobia as predictors of cultured meat acceptance in ten countries