Consumer Perception and Acceptance of Novel Food Technologies for More Sustainable Consumption

With a rapidly growing global population and an escalating climate crisis, our food systems are facing unprecedented challenges. Transforming these systems toward sustainability is becoming a global political priority. In particular, reliance on livestock products is becoming increasingly unsustainable because of environmental and health concerns. In this context, new technologies have a critical role to play. By offering innovative ways to produce food, these novel food technologies have the potential to reduce resource use, lower environmental impact, and increase production efficiency. Research on these technologies and their societal implications is of paramount importance as it can guide their development, inform policy decisions, and shape public discourse.

As consumer acceptance of novel products is key to their market success, it is essential to understand the factors that influence consumer perceptions and choices of products based on novel technologies.

This project aims to contribute to the understanding of consumer perceptions and product choices of products from novel food technologies.

In particular, we examine non-animal “dairy” products derived from precision fermentation technology (PFT). This technology is said to have the potential to revolutionize food production, particularly in the dairy sector, by offering an alternative to conventional dairy products alongside plant-based substitutes such as soy milk and oat milk.

Insights into consumer perception and acceptance of novel food technologies are needed to support and inform product development and marketing decisions for these products as well as policy decisions and public discourse. In particular, we address the following questions:

• What level of interest do consumers have in new sustainable food technologies, and how do they perceive them?
• How do consumers perceive specific features of PFT and animal-free dairy foods, including technology acceptance, taste, and healthiness?
• What are consumers’ purchase intentions toward animal-free dairy foods regarding different food technologies? What are drivers of purchase intentions—for instance, which consumers’ individual psychological and demographic factors impact purchase intent?
• What is the effect of different message frames (e.g., affective vs. representative) on consumer acceptance of precision fermentation products?

We are conducting a representative survey with 1,000 consumers each in Germany, France, Denmark, and the United Kingdom.

• Banovic, M., Hesel, N., Buder, F. (2024, June): Emotion over information: How the affect heuristic shapes consumers’ attitudes towards sustainable technological innovations. International Food Marketing Research Symposium 2024, June 2024, Tromsø.
• Banovic, M., Hesel, N., Buder, F. (forthcoming): The affect heuristic in consumers’ initial judgments of sustainable technology innovations. Accepted for presentation at the American Marketing Association Summer Academic Conference, August 2024, Boston.