New sustainable protein sources : Consumers' willingness to adopt insects as feed and food

The aim of the study was to investigate the willingness of Italian consumers to adopt insects, suitable candidates for providing sustainable animal proteins, as part of animal and human diets. Furthermore, we evaluated the effect of information about the benefit of introducing insects into the diet on consumers' acceptance. The results showed that respondents were clearly not ready to accept insects as food, whereas a major positive trend was observed regarding their use as feed. The principal factors affecting the Italian consumers' readiness to adopt insects as food and feed were age, gender, cultural background and food neophobia. Contrary to our expectation, subjects' involvement in sustainability issues did not play a role in the acceptance of insects. Information about the environmental and nutritional benefits of introducing insects as food had a marginal but positive effect on their visual acceptability.