Changing Landscape in Consumer Perceptions and Preferences for Meat and Meat Alternatives

In response to consumer concerns such as animal welfare, ecological impacts, sustainability, and foodborne/zoonotic illness and health outcomes, researchers and industry practitioners have made many significant advancements towards addressing these concerns. New discoveries have improved animal health and meat quality through feed additives, production techniques, and reduced waste by-products. Moreover, innovative food technologies have emerged to address these concerns by providing alternative proteins. Two prominent examples include plant-based meat alternatives and cultured meat produced from the in-vitro cultivation of animal cells without growing the whole animals. While recent improvements have helped animal production systems to evolve, it is critical to scrutinize consumers awareness of and perceptions about these changes, as well as consumer trust in the food value chain and food technologies. The implications of the adoption of these substitutes to traditional meat products need to be studied further to shed light on the intersection of livestock production, food security, alternative protein sources, and socioeconomics.

Dear Colleagues,

Ensuring the supply of safe and high-quality animal products while simultaneously increasing productivity of the agricultural livestock sector is a significant challenge. Without major changes to agricultural production, it is expected that increases in global population and per capita income will lead to projections of rising demand for protein products in the coming decades. In addition, to satisfying shifting consumer preferences (e.g., environmentalism, conservationism), there is increasing pressure on animal agriculture due to its climatic, ethical, and human health impacts. As the global population continues to expand towards population estimates of nearly 9 billion by 2050, agricultural biotechnology advancements are critical to transforming our food system and to address food security challenges. Advancements in agricultural biotechnology have given rise to novel alternative protein sources which have implications that can strengthen the economy and society. Relevant investments, programs, and partnerships have emerged in this area to potentially increase the prevalence of bioproducts among consumers, resulting an imminent need to better understand consumer awareness and perception about alternative proteins, institutional trust in the food value chain, and acceptance and adoption of alternative meats and other protein sources.

We are pleased to invite original research articles that examine consumer preferences and perceptions of animal-derived foods (i.e., meat and meat products, milk and dairy products, and fish), plant-based meat alternatives, or meat alternatives derived from cellular agriculture. Topics of special interest align with examining the intersection of economics and consumer perceptions, preferences, attitudes related to animal-based protein sources and its substitutes.

Dr. John Lai
Dr. Lijun Angelia Chen
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• consumer behavior
• consumer perceptions, attitudes, and preferences
• economics
• livestock
• livestock products