Okpala, Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences: Uniwersytet Przyrodniczy we Wroclawiu, POLAND PLoS ONE 18(1):Įditor: Charles Odilichukwu R. (2023) Consumers’ acceptance toward whole and processed mealworms: A cross-country study in Belgium, China, Italy, Mexico, and the US. These findings provide insights into which consumer segments to target and the potential impact of information when introducing new insect-based foods in countries with and without entomophagy traditions.Ĭitation: Tzompa-Sosa DA, Moruzzo R, Mancini S, Schouteten JJ, Liu A, Li J, et al. Moreover, across countries, the acceptance of including processed mealworms was higher compared to whole mealworms. Whereas it was found that younger people (below 42 years old) in countries without entomophagy tradition were more open to accepting processed mealworms in their diet. While information and age did affect differently the acceptance of including processed mealworms in countries with entomophagy traditions showing that consumer acceptance was affected by information in Mexico and by age in China.

Countries with entomophagy traditions (Mexico and China) showed higher acceptance of including whole or processed mealworms in the diet compared to countries with no entomophagy traditions (i.e., Belgium, Italy, and the US). Entomophagy tradition mainly explained the differences among countries. Across countries, gender was the main factor affecting acceptance level as men accepted mealworms more than women. Moreover, an information treatment was included with about half of the participants receiving information about the advantages of edible insects as food (ingredient) and the presence of food safety regulations. An online survey was applied to collect responses (3,006) from five countries–i.e., Belgium, China, Italy, Mexico, and the US–using a quota sampling method.

Thus, this study aimed to examine to which extent consumers were accepting (i) whole and visible mealworms, (ii) processed mealworms in their diet and (iii) to explore the factors affecting the acceptance level of consuming mealworms in countries with and without entomophagy tradition. However, only a few studies have conducted cross-country investigations on the acceptance of including processed or whole insects in the diet.

The interest in edible insects as food is growing, both in traditional and non-traditional insect-eating countries given their advantages in terms of sustainability and nutritional content.

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