Abstract
Pulses present many advantages for human health, nutrition, sustainability, and the environment. Despite efforts in recent years by the pulse industry and national authorities to favor pulses, consumption in France remains relatively low, at 1.7 kg/per person in 2016, compared to 1920 when it was around 7.2 kg/per person. To understand social representations of pulses in France, 80 French nonvegetarian consumers and 35 professionals from the pulse industry were asked to say five words spontaneously evoked by the inductor “pulses”. They then had to rank these five words in order of importance and rate their valence. The structural approach was used to analyze social representations for each group independently. Our results highlight differences in the structure and content of social representations for pulses. Consumer responses suggested only vague impressions of pulses, but taste evocations were nevertheless rated positively. By contrast, professionals tended to focus specifically on protein content and culinary preparation. These differences could explain some barriers to pulse consumption, and improved communication should be a key target. Efficient communication must consider the concepts most frequently used by consumers when referring to pulses, and those ranked as most important.
Highlights
There is growing interest worldwide in sustainable diets, and pulses present many advantages: They have a positive impact on environmental sustainability, on human nutrition and health, and on food security [1]
The aim of the present study is to understand the social representations of pulses among two social groups in France: nonvegetarian consumers and professionals from the pulse industry
After the thematic analysis and the triangulation process, we obtained a total of 35 word groups, 24 of which were common to both sets of participants, while 6 groups were specific to consumers and 5 to professionals (Table 1)
Summary
There is growing interest worldwide in sustainable diets, and pulses present many advantages: They have a positive impact on environmental sustainability, on human nutrition and health, and on food security [1] Despite their numerous interesting properties, pulses have become less popular in France over the last century [2,3], with annual consumption falling to 1.7 kg per person in 2016 [4]. The most recent French public nutritional campaign provides information about pulses [8], with the aim of increasing pulse consumption in France. It seems that these efforts have not yet been successful.
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