Exploring Perception and Acceptance of Edible Insects as a Protein Source

Edible insects are increasingly getting attention as an attractive source of protein due to their high protein quality and sustainability of their production compared to traditional sources of meat. However, consumers, especially Western consumers, may be aversive to eating insects (Tan et al., 2015). In order to encourage consumers towards sustainable sources of protein, it is crucial to examine the factors that shape consumers perception of edible insects. The goal of this research is to understand which factors affect acceptance of different protein sources, more specifically insect protein. In order to do so, we compared perceptions of protein bars with one of the three labels (insect, soy, or whey) in an exploratory experiment (N=78). The experiment was a 3 (protein type: whey vs. soy vs. insect) × 2 (order: evaluate‐taste vs. taste‐evaluate) between subjects design. In the experiment, one third of the participants were told that the protein bar sample they received had 10 grams of protein vs. soy protein vs. insect protein. All of the samples were from identical protein bars and had only regular whey protein. In addition, half of the participant first tasted the sample and then evaluated the sample (taste‐evaluate condition). The other half first evaluated the sample, then tasted it, and then evaluated the bar again (evaluate‐taste condition). In the taste‐evaluate condition, all the three samples had identical evaluations. Participants did not indicate any differences in terms of taste or texture among the three protein sources when they sampled the bar before they answered the questions. They all thought that they would enjoy the protein bar at similar levels. However, in the evaluate first and then taste condition, contradictory to what previous research suggests, the sample protein bar with the insect protein label had higher evaluations in terms of both expected and actual taste. Simply labeling the protein bar sample as having insect protein enhanced its evaluations. The results from our study challenge the common belief that Western consumers are likely to reject eating insects. Future studies will explore which specific factors encourage consumers to evaluate foods with insect protein as more favorable. This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal .