**1. Introduction**

Why do consumers find insects disgusting? By research and definition, disgust is an emotional response of rejection or revulsion to something potentially contagious or something considered offensive, distasteful, or unpleasant [1,2]. Some authors report that it is not the taste that makes food disgusting, but rather the nature and origin of the food that triggers the disgust emotion [3]. Different negative perceptions toward insects, such as being disease transmitters, filthy, unhealthy and unhygienic [4] and the lack of accurate consumer information about insects have built a foundation of disgust. Despite the many excellent reasons to introduce insects to our diets, the current social paradigm is likely to undergo rather drastic alterations before consumers decide to get a side of crickets with their meal or eat other foods containing insect powders as an ingredient [5]. "It's disgusting" was the main reason, other than not knowing what it is, that consumers said that insect powder was not "natural" [6].

Food perceptions can change, especially if nutritional factors are involved, as reported by Bech-Larsen et al. [7]. In this age of environmental concerns, people are viewing products in new ways. There are other external variables, such as religion and allergic reactions that also can contribute to an increase in rejection to eating insects [5], but disgust has been perceived as the primary motivator. Unfortunately, there is little data showing the actual reasons. Baker et al. [8] suggested that it is

necessary to understand more about all the barriers and the food neophobia challenges to fully understand how to reduce the consumer's negative perceptions and attitudes.

In recent years, different studies have covered the consumer acceptance of insect based products [9], entomophagy [10] and the willingness to eat food produced using insects as an ingredient [11] in one or two countries or regions. However, only one study was found that looked more globally at the issue of insect-based food consumption [5] and that study only examined the issue in terms of willingness to eat such foods and the impact on brand image if companies chose to use such an ingredient. The research helping to understand the actual barriers to insect-based food is minimal. However, Lorenz et al. [12] indicated that the simple fact of contemplating the idea of eating insects provokes an immediate disgust response to the general public. What reasons do consumers from various parts of the world and from different cultures, backgrounds and languages give to eating or not eating insect-based food products? There may be a compendium of thoughts, such as those associated with the consumption of wine (feeling smart and sophisticated), another product that must be learned and is not immediately accepted by most people [13]. If there is only a feeling of fear or disgust preventing people from eating insect-based products, a different challenge is presented than if more extensive concerns must be alleviated.

In consequence, this study aims to understand more thoroughly the psychological and sensory reasons for not eating insects. It does not seek to understand physical or social factors such as allergies or religious restrictions. The study was conducted in 13 countries to provide a somewhat global perspective.

#### **2. Materials and Methods**

This research was conducted in conjunction with a previously published project [5] where a detailed description of the survey methodology can be found.

#### *2.1. Participant Profile*

The respondents (*n* = 630 per country) were recruited from existing databases by Qualtrics, one of the world's largest on-line survey companies. The company's and its contractor databases include more than 30 million people. Approximately 100 participants of each gender (male, female) and age (18–34 years old; 35–54 years old; 55+ years old) combination completed the questionnaire per country (630 participants per country). A total of 7560 consumers completed the questionnaire.

The participants were from 13 countries (United States (USA), Mexico, Peru, Brazil, United Kingdom (UK), Spain, Russia, India, China, Thailand, Japan, South Africa, and Australia). The differences in the cultures, languages, traditions and religions make this a broad-based multi cross-cultural international survey. However, two additional countries, Egypt and Ghana, were eliminated from the study because not enough participants in each category completed the survey (for all categories in Ghana and for the 55+ age group in Egypt) after multiple attempts. This shows that there were not enough willing consumers with access to an appropriate mobile device to complete the survey in those countries, a limitation of this type of research.

#### *2.2. Survey*

The global willingness to eat insect products research study was divided in phases [5]. This portion of the survey focused only on the phase that covered the psychological and sensory reasons for not eating insect-based products. The participants indicated their agreement/disagreement on each of the reasons (Table 1) using a 7-point Likert-type scale with 7 as strongly agree to 1, strongly disagree.


**Table 1.** The reasons for not eating foods containing insect powder as an ingredient.

Scale: 1 = Strongly disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3 = Somewhat disagree, 4 = Neither agree nor disagree, 5 = Somewhat agree, 6 = agree, 7 = Strongly agree.

The survey was developed based on interviews and focus groups with participants from various countries and many prior studies that identified various issues associated with eating new food products. The final statements were developed based on the aggregate information provided in those focus groups, which was grouped into key topic areas. This portion of the survey focused exclusively on psychological or attitudinal reasons why a person might not eat such products. The English version of the survey was tested for face-validity using four professionals with an understanding of sensory and consumer behavior. The survey was tested for the correctness, use, and timing by seven students of various backgrounds and was pre-tested again using 50 consumers whose data were checked and analyzed to ensure the questions were understandable and did not lead to answers that were inappropriate or unreasonable.

For statistical modeling (regression analysis), a question on willingness to eat a food product that included an insect-based ingredient was used from Castro and Chambers [5]. The question read: "If a major worldwide company; e.g., Nestle, Coca-Cola, KFC, Starbucks, etc., introduces a new product similar to one you currently buy that contains insect powder, how willing would you be to try this product?". The number of consumers who were "willing to try", "not willing to try", or "not sure" is given in Table 2.


**Table 2.** The number (*n*) of consumers in each country who were not, were, and not sure about eating an insect-based product from a well-known manufacturer (total *n* = 630/country; sorted by not willing).

The survey was translated into nine languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Hindi, Mandarin Chinese, Thai, Japanese, and Afrikaans). The inspection of the translations was either by back translation or multiple translation, both with discussion afterwards by the translators to resolve any problems. The single translated versions were offered in some countries (e.g., Russia, UK), but multiple translations appropriate for the country were offered in others (e.g., South Africa, India).

#### *2.3. Data Analysis*

For each country, the data initially were simply categorized and described using percentages for each potential answer. The next step was to combine the three disagree scores into a category of "disagree" and the same procedure was implemented to the three agree choices obtaining the "agree" category. Score "4", neither agree nor disagree remained a separate category.

The statistical analyses using multiple regression with a stepwise elimination were performed using MiniTab-18 (Minitab Inc. State College, PA, USA) and SAS 9.4 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA) to estimate the impact of the reasons for not eating products containing insect powder over the dependent variable (willingness to eat food containing insect powder). For every country, the following regression equation was executed:

Y (*Willing to eat products made with insect powder*) = β<sup>o</sup> + β<sup>1</sup> Idea Disgusting + β<sup>2</sup> Taste Not Good + β<sup>3</sup> Insects Not Safe to Eat + β<sup>4</sup> Bad Texture + β<sup>5</sup> Thought makes me Sick + β<sup>6</sup> Insects are Dirty/Filthy to + β<sup>7</sup> Color Not Good + β<sup>8</sup> No Insect Pieces in my Food + ε.

For all the countries, the significant coefficients were described in a bar graph for a better interpretation. Additionally,*r*-squared and *p*-value summaries were noted to understand the percentage of the variation by the models.

This study was approved by the Committee on Research with Human Subjects at Kansas State University.

#### **3. Results and Discussion**

#### *3.1. Psychological*/*Sensory Reasons for Not Eating Insects Consumers Who Are Unwilling to Eat Insect Powder—Based Products*

Figure 1 shows the percentages of the consumers who were unwilling to try insect powder-based products in each country who selected each psychological or sensory reason for not eating those products. The consumers in all thirteen countries agreed that the most important reason is related to appearance, consumers do not want to see insect pieces in their food, followed by the "Idea is disgusting" or "The thought makes me sick". The two least important reasons were "The color would not be good" and "Insects are not safe to eat", although those reasons still averaged approximately 50% of consumers. More than 70% of the participants from each country agreed that appearance is extremely important. It is not appealing to consumers to see insect pieces in their food or snacks. Similar information on the visual appearance was noted by Meyer-Rochow and Hakko [14] who commented that using powders or pastes where the insect was not obvious was a better way to introduce the use of insects in food.

The primarily English-speaking countries (i.e., USA, Australia and United Kingdom) and South Africa generally were the top countries whose consumers strongly agreed that the reasons for not eating insects were "I do not want to see insect pieces in my food" and "Just the thought makes me sick"/"Idea is disgusting". Although the number of people who would not eat an insect-based product was high in India to begin with (>65%), with many saying they would not eat such foods based on religious constraints [5], Indian consumers also selected all eight psychological and sensory reasons for not eating insect-based products at a high percentages (65–90%). This probably is because the concept of eating a meat-containing food is anathema to most Hindus and any reason would be a reason not to eat such foods. Mexican and Thai consumers were the least likely to reject an insect-based product [5], but those consumers who said they would not try such a product did not agree on reasons for not eating insect-based foods. The percentage of consumers in Mexico and Thailand who chose particular reasons for not eating insect-based foods were among the lowest of all countries for all reasons except the color. Fu and others [15] showed that cultural values modulate consumer beliefs. Therefore, this study hypothesized that when a product is acceptable to the culture (i.e., more people are willing to eat than not eat that food), it is likely that individual beliefs related to food become the key decision criteria. In the case of Mexico and Thailand, it is likely that the reasons for not eating a food are more

individualized and, thus, more likely to be spread among many factors than when overarching cultural or societal norms are present.

**Figure 1.** Graph of the reasons for not eating insect based products—Consumers unwilling to try.

#### *3.2. Consumers Who Are Willing to Eat Insect Based Products*

Figure 2 shows the percentages of the consumers who were willing to try insect products in each country who selected each reason for not eating an insect powder-based food product. Not surprisingly, the results showed that for most countries except India, the consumers who were willing to try insect-based foods generally did not have reasons for not choosing such foods. In most cases, less than 40% of consumers in those countries chose a specific reason for not choosing an insect-based food product. There were two major exceptions. More than 40% of consumers willing to try insect-based product in most countries indicated they still would not choose a food if there were insect pieces in it. Second, even those Indian consumers who were willing to try insect-based products found many reasons not to eat such products. Almost every reason, except disgust, was chosen by 50% or more of willing Indian consumers as a reason not to eat insect-based products. It is not surprising that even those who say they are willing to try a food, find reasons for not eating such foods. From other research [16–19], it is known that liking and pleasure, habits, convenience, hunger, health, and a myriad of other reasons motivate people to eat the foods they choose.

When considering the reasons for willing consumers, the same patterns overall were observed in reasons as the unwilling consumers. The main reason for not eating such products being the appearance of pieces. Mexico and Thailand rated the lowest agreement scores across all the reasons. Over 40% of Chinese and Japanese consumers agreed to the following reasons: Color not good, the thought makes me sick, taste not good, the idea is disgusting, insects are dirty/filthy, and no insect pieces in my food. The results were expected to show low agreement scores because these consumers were willing to eat food obtained from insects. However, it is interesting that the pattern of responses is similar to those from unwilling consumers. This information suggests that the decision to eat or not eat a particular food made from insects has the same barriers regardless of the individuals' willingness to try such products. This is good news for those who wish to promote the use of insects as a food

ingredient because some types of information provided to consumers have been found to increase likelihood to eat insect-based products [20,21].

**Figure 2.** A graph of the reasons for not eating insect based products—consumers willing to try.
