engleski

Adventurous or neophobic? A cross‐country exploration of food consumers

Demand for environmentally and socially produced products is increasing across Europe, and seaweed is a plant-based protein that offers both nutritional and environmental benefits. Modern lifestyles and eating habit changes have resulted in increasing cases of obesity and chronic metabolic diseases, particularly in Western societies. Whilst products containing seaweed should inspire both healthy and sustainable eating habits, consumer understanding of such benefits represents a significant hurdle. Changing consumers' acceptability of new food product alternatives and dietary patterns to incorporate such products is also challenging, as food acceptability and food choices are influenced by many factors, and sensory preferences play an important role. The study employed an online survey instrument utilising commercial consumer panels that allowed for the identification and measurement of consumer types (adventurous ; neophobic) and seaweed consumption behaviour (past behaviour ; future intention). Data was collected from three countries (n = 1, 621): Australia (n = 521) ; the United Kingdom (n = 526) ; Croatia (n = 574). Females dominated the sample in all three countries and is likely reflective of the requirement that participants were the person with the main/shared responsibility for purchasing and cooking food in the household. All age ranges were reflected in the data collected, however those aged 30-44years were the dominant age range in all three countries followed by 45-49 years, under 30 years, and 60+ years respectively. Two clusters were identified in all countries, namely ‘adventurous’ consumers and ‘neophobic’ consumers. Results show that Australian consumers are significantly more food neophobic compared with UK and Croatian consumers (60.7% versus 42.8% and 43.2%).

consumer ; survey ; neophobic ; adventurous

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