Insects as food. Consumers’ attitude between perceived taste, healthiness and food neophobia

The aim of the study is to enhance the existing body of knowledge regarding consumer acceptance and interest in insect-based foods. Insect farming represents a sustainable and nutritionally valuable alternative to traditional livestock farming, which has a detrimental impact on the Earth’s natural resources and contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions. In order to understand which factors drive positive attitudes towards entomophagy and which psychological barriers exert the greatest influence on customer choices a total of 755 responses were collected from Italian consumers. Results revealed that expected taste is the main driver of the increase in desire to eat and intention to purchase the product. Conversely, perceived risk acts as a deterrent to purchase and is negatively influenced by product perceived quality. Finally, food neophobia represents a relevant barrier to experimenting with insect-based products. The results will benefit both marketers and companies, providing insights into the positive and negative factors that may shape consumers’ food choices.