Determinants of palm oil consumption in food products: A systematic review

Abstract

• This review aims at understanding the determinants of palm oil acceptance. • Health, environment and knowledge are involved in palm oil acceptance. • Few works study the emotional and social factors in accepting palm oil. • Future studies should investigate individual levers and other product categories. Nowadays, research that investigates the determinants affecting consumer acceptance of foods with or without palm oil is growing, while there is a lack of studies that summarize this evidence and that focus on a potential trade-off between these two options, namely, products containing sustainable palm oil. For this reason, a systematic review was carried out to identify the determinants affecting the acceptance of foods with or without palm oil, and with sustainable palm oil. The variables that transversely affect the acceptance of these products have a psychological nature and are related to health and environment concern and the level of knowledge. In particular, the knowledge of the specific food product seems to be the key to behavioral change. Indeed, the knowledge of a specific food product leads to consider positively the ingredients of which it is composed also increase the acceptance of palm oil if present among the ingredients.