Prospects for insects as food in Switzerland: A tobit regression

Abstract

A great deal of attention has been dedicated to entomophagy (i.e., the eating of insects) in Western Europe in the last few years. Several studies have accounted for the importance of entomophagy, the evaluation of insects’ nutritional benefits, and their potential for the market. Specifically, predictors of the acceptance and consumption of edible insects, including attitudinal beliefs and values, have been examined by means of mathematical models. This study provides an overview of the predictors that are currently used to explain the willingness to consume insects. Based on a survey conducted in Switzerland, this study includes, to the best of our knowledge, all these predictors in an encompassing tobit regression model and reports the magnitude of their effects to select a set of predictors that can be used for future studies. Moreover, it discusses the interaction-effects between those predictors.We found a set of nine significant variables reliably predicting the willingness to consume insects: convenience orientation, the discernibility of insects in food, expected food healthiness, the need for familiarity, food neophobia, food technology neophobia, the perceived health benefits of meat, and the binary variables gender and prior consumption. For the present data, food neophobia was not found to be the key predictor of willingness to consume insects, but shares its rank with various predictors. Further, the analysis revealed one meaningful two-way interaction effect.