Exploring Malaysian Consumers' Perception and Purchase Intention of Meat Analogues

Abstract

Increased meat consumption is said to have detrimental effects on health, environmental, and non-ethical. One alternative to meat consumption is meat analogues. To our knowledge, Malaysian consumers' perceptions, expectations and their purchase intention of meat analogues is less explored. In our study, significant determinants of consumers’ purchase intentions of meat analogues were studied on 387 consumers by using the extended Ajzen's theory of planned behaviour (TPB). The TPB model accounted for 49% of the variance in purchase intention and 6% of the variance in purchase behaviour. It was revealed that attitude, subjective norms, environmental concerns, healthiness influence, and objective knowledge were all statistically significant predictors of consumers' intention to purchase meat analogues. Purchase intention had a significant but negative correlation on purchase behaviour . We found no evidence that perceived behavioural control, food neophobia, and perceived monetary barriers influenced purchase intention. Knowledge on meat analogues was not significantly correlated with attitude towards meat analogues. Our study also confirmed that meat substitutes should taste, feel, and prepare similarly to meats. In a nutshell, the research findings indicated that meat analogue producers should emphasize on improving the sensorial qualities of their existing meat substitute products and increasing consumers’ awareness about the novel food product.