Alternative Protein Sources: Generation Y’s Food Neophobia, Entomophagy Acceptance, Self-Assessed Environmental Concern, and Intention to Recommend Entomophagy ^†

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explore the Greek Generation Y cohorts’ food neophobia, intention to engage in entomophagy, self-assessed environmental concern, and intention to recommend entomophagy as an alternative to meat protein intake. Lastly, it groups participants based on the abovementioned variables. An online questionnaire applying a convenient sampling method collected data from 234 members of the Generation Y cohort. Regarding food neophobia, mean values (MVs) revealed that the statement “If I don’t like the look/appearance of a food/dish I won’t try it” was the highest rated (MV = 4.72 on a 7-point Likert scale). As to acceptance of entomophagy, the highest rated statement was “I would only try insect-based foods abroad (e.g., in the Far East)” with MV = 3.98 on a 7-point Likert scale. As to self-assessed environmental concern, the results revealed that participants answered that “I am quite interested in environmental issues, but they are not my immediate priority” (MV = 3.00 on a 5-point Likert-type scale) and they are not likely to recommend entomophagy to others (MV = 1.69 on a 5-point Likert-type scale). A K-means cluster analysis provided three clusters. Communication marketing and sustainability education are discussed to raise awareness of entomophagy and possible acceptance.

1. Introduction

Sustainable food consumption advocates consuming alternative protein to meat sources by humans [1] amongst which is the substitute of animal protein by insect protein [2]. Substitution of meat protein for insect protein is based on the fact that insects have high protein composition [3] and have been safely used as human food throughout the centuries for millions of people in different parts of the world [4,5,6]. While it is an undeniable fact that in different parts of the world, insect consumption is widely accepted and applied, in the Western world, it has low acceptability [7]. The main reasons for the low acceptance of entomophagy are considered among others food neophobia [8,9,10,11] and low environmental concern [12]. Additionally, previous research shows that personal demographic characteristics are also associated with the acceptance of entomophagy [13], with an increasing interest in generational cohorts rather than individuals’ age [14]. Furthermore, prior studies consider the Generation Y cohort as the most environmentally sensitive cohort, which has the highest intention to engage in sustainable food consumption behavior [15].

This study has as its main aim to explore the Generation Y cohort’s food neophobia, insect consumption acceptance, self-assessed environmental concern, and intention to recommend entomophagy as an alternative for meat protein intake. Lastly, it groups the Generation Y cohort on the basis of the variables mentioned above.

2. Materials and Methods

This research focused on the Greek Generation Y cohort, i.e., being born from 1978 to 1994 [16]. The research was realized during four months in 2024, i.e., from January to April 2024. The data were gathered solely online, employing a non-probability sampling frame, and collected in this time range were 234 valid questionnaires. The items for measuring food neophobia were adopted from Pliner and Hobden [17] and supplemented by two items from the qualitative research that took place to validate the items. Nine items were used to measure insect consumption acceptance, which were adopted from Szendrő et al. [18]. In both cases, i.e., neophobia and entomophagy acceptance, answers were rated on the 7-point attitudinal Likert scale. Additionally, their intention to recommend insect consumption for protein intake was explored (5-point Likert-type scale; 1 = very unlikely up to 5 = very likely). Lastly, self-assessed environmental concern was rated on a 5-point Likert-type scale. The self-assessed environmental concern was rated from 1 to 5, with the lowest score attributed to the statement 1 = “I am not interested in environmental issues/problems at all” up to the highest statement: 5 = “I care and am very aware of environmental issues and do everything in my power to protect the environment”, with the assumption that the 1–5 answers have equal intervals. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, factor analysis, reliability analysis, and cluster analysis.

3. Results

3.1. Demographic Profile of the Subjects

Men (62.0%) were highly overrepresented compared to women (38.0%). The older Generation Y members (born from 1978 to 1982) were overrepresented (42.8%) compared to those who were born between 1983 and 1988 (28.6%) and the youngest members of the cohort, born between 1989 and 1994, who also accounted for 28.6% of the sample. Moreover, the majority were married (60.3%), were private employees (48.7%), resided in a city (76.5%), lived with their family (55.1%), and had a family net monthly income of up to EUR 2000.00 per month (74.4%).

3.2. Food Neophobia

Twelve items were rated for food neophobia (10 from Pliner & Hobden, 1992 and two from qualitative research). From the twelve items, the highest rated were those derived from qualitative research: “If I don’t like the look/appearance of an unfamiliar food/dish I won’t try it” (MV = 4.72) and “If I don’t like the smell/odor of an unfamiliar food/dish I won’t try it” (MV = 4.26). On the other hand, the lowest-rated item was “At dinner parties, I will try a new food ^®” (MV = 2.99), followed by “I am afraid to eat things I have never had before” (MV = 3.17).

Table 1. Dimensions of the food neophobia scale.

Food Neophobia	TVE (%)	No of Items	Cronbach α	MFS	Std of MFS
Factor 1 (General Food Neophobia)	48.8	10	0.940	3.39	(1.42)
Factor 2 (Sensory Attributed Food Neophobia)	21.2	2	0.846	4.49	(1.73)
Total reliability of scale			0.934
Total variance explained	70.0

presents the factors extracted from the factor analysis with varimax rotation, the total variance explained (TVE), the number of items per factor, reliability per factor as well as total reliability, mean factor score (MFS), and standard deviation (std of MFS).

3.3. Acceptance of Entomophagy, Environmental Concern, and Intention to Recommend

Descriptive statistics of the acceptance of entomophagy scale uncovered that the statement with the highest MV was “I would only try insect-based foods abroad (e.g., in the Far East)” (MV = 3.98), followed by the statement “I would eat an insect product if special attention was not given to the packaging, it would only be included in the ingredients” (MV = 3.97). On the other hand, the statement with the lowest MV was “If it turned out that my boyfriend/girlfriend/family member was eating insect-based food, I would also taste it” (MV = 3.00). Total reliability of scale, Cronbach α = 0.934. The factor analysis produced one factor accounting for 71.4% of the TV and with MFS = 2.14 (Std = 1.33).

Environmental concern was rated on a 5-point Likert-type scale, and produced an MV = 3.00, revealing that the participants answered, “I am quite interested in environmental issues, but they are not my immediate priority”. As to the intention to recommend entomophagy as an alternative for meat protein intake, MV = 1.69, implying that the participants are not willing to recommend it as an alternative for meat protein intake.

3.4. Segmentation

K-means cluster analysis was implemented for the segmentation of the Generation Y members, revealing three clusters (

Table 2. Segmentation of the Generation Y cohort based on food neophobia, acceptance of entomophagy, environmental concern, and intention to recommend entomophagy as an alternative for meat protein intake.

LTFP Are	1 N = 83	2 N = 109	3 N = 42	F	Sig.
1. General Food Neophobia	2.37	3.96	3.94	46.485	<0.001
2. Sensory-Attributed Food Neophobia	2.58	5.65	5.26	239.595	<0.001
3. Acceptance of entomophagy	2.27	1.44	3.71	72.780	<0.001
4. Environmental Concern	3.08	2.82	3.33	3.921	<0.001
5. Intention to recommend entomophagy	1.90	1.09	2.81	56.016	<0.001

), which all differ as the ANOVA tests exposed. Table 2 provides the three clusters, the number of cases in each cluster, their final cluster centers (FCCs), and the ANOVA results (F and p sign.).

Cluster 1: The “Non-neophobic but insect avoiders”. This group incorporates 83 members of the Generation Y cohort, who are not food neophobic, do not accept entomophagy, have some environmental concerns but it is not something that is in their direct agenda, and are unlikely to recommend entomophagy as an alternative for meat protein intake.

Cluster 2: The “Entomophagy deniers”. This is the largest segment, consisting of 109 members of the Y cohort. While this segment does not show general food neophobia, its members show sensory neophobia, have the least acceptance of entomophagy, the least concern for the environment, and will definitely not recommend entomophagy as an alternative to meat protein intake.

Cluster 3: The “Potential insect consumers”. This is the smallest segment, consisting of 42 members of the Y cohort. This segment also does not show a general food neophobia but does demonstrate a sensory-attributed food neophobia. It has the highest acceptance of entomophagy and environmental concerns and is neither likely nor unlikely to recommend entomophagy to others as an alternative to eating meat proteins. It is noted that their environmental concern and their intention to recommend entomophagy is the highest compared to the other segments.

4. Discussion

The results of this study demonstrate that the Greek Generation Y cohort does not accept the consumption of insects in general, as the two largest groups of participants had very low scores on the scale measuring the acceptability of entomophagy. This is in line with previous studies in Greece [19,20] and in other countries, e.g., [21]. These results point to significant cultural and perceptual barriers to the acceptance of insect consumption.

Regarding food neophobia, most participants did not report general food neophobia, but two of the three clusters showed signs of sensory-attributed food neophobia. Tan et al. [22] consider that unusual novel foods such as insects lack sensory appeal, which may explain the fact that Cluster 2 of this study had the highest sensory-attributed food neophobia and the lowest acceptance of entomophagy. The perceptions of Cluster 3 can be considered peculiar according to this logic, at least at first glance. Though having relatively high sensory-attributed food neophobia but also showing the highest acceptance of insects, in comparison to the other two clusters, reveals that they are willing to accept entomophagy if the insects are not visible. Therefore, they could be willing to consume, e.g., insect-based flour.

All three clusters of the Greek Generation Y cohort showed that while they say that they care about the environment, it is not something that is in their direct concern, which is in contrast to the results of other studies that present Generation Y as one of the most environmentally conscious generations, e.g., [15]. This reveals that the Greek Generation Y needs to be educated on the importance of environmental sustainability since they are already or will become, in the future, parents and it is to the direct benefit of their children’s wellbeing. It also implies that the educational system needs to emphasize sustainability courses. Finally, no segment intends to recommend entomophagy to other people, which can also be attributed to cultural and perceptual barriers.

5. Conclusions

This research aimed to explore the Greek Generation Y cohort’s food neophobia, acceptance and intention to recommend entomophagy as an alternative source of protein, and their ecological concern, and also to group participants based on these variables. The results revealed that the participants tend to be somewhat food neophobic (not general food neophobic but food sensory neophobic), do not accept entomophagy, will not recommend it, and are environmentally concerned but it is not something that they will engage in action for, at least for the time being.

This shows that the Greek Generation Y cohort needs to be educated about entomophagy, because they may not be aware of the environmental and health benefits associated with it, as the meta-analysis by Wassmann et al. [23] shows. From a marketing communication perspective, emphasizing the benefits and exotic elements of insect consumption is crucial and highlights the importance of educating Generation Y individuals. It is also important that social marketing campaigns seek effective communication strategies and media to sensitize people to the problems surrounding the sustainability of the planet, which can have an impact on many issues, including entomophagy acceptance.

6. Research Limitations and Future Research

The main limitations of the study refer to the sample size, the targeted population, the country, and the data collection method, which can all lead to new research and results that can be compared with the outcomes of this research. Therefore, future research could target other generational cohorts, not only in Greece but in other European or non-European countries, in order to have a holistic view of food neophobia, entomophagy acceptance, and intention to recommend, as well as their environmental concern and segments.