**8. Conclusions**

This review of the recent situation in several European countries has explored several elements that are crucial for the development and innovation in the agri-food sector, both from the standpoint of the industry and from the consumer's perspective. In the latter connection, though consumer acceptance or rejection of a new food product hinges on a complex range of variables, three conclusions can be drawn that can assist companies that intend to introduce innovative practices or new products on the market:


Thus, we believe that future research should address the attitude towards new food products starting from an understanding of the food identity profile of the members of the population of interest. Only in this way will it be possible to tap the psychological variables linked to the system of values that drive food choices. While these values manifest themselves in the conduct of the individual, they are always in resonance with a food community, anchored to a series of typifications of food choices that individuals then tend to take as their own. A better understanding of these values would make it possible to determine whether innovations are consistent or compatible with the career profile to which the person tends to correspond. To be effective, information and marketing campaigns should be tailored to specific eater identity profile groups. An underinvestigated strategy for promoting a positive attitude to food innovation consists of investing in food ingredients or technologies that can be viewed favorably by specific food subgroups on the basis of the value system that their "food philosophy" is committed to safeguarding.

As this review has shown, today's food choices are highly fragmented as a result of individuals' differing ideological attitudes. Consequently, expecting to be able to introduce new foods that can be interesting or desirable across all consumer families seems outdated and unrealistic. Choosing the dietary group to be targeted by the innovation as the first step would seem to be a far more promising strategy.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, review of the literature, investigation, writing—original draft preparation; writing—review and editing, E.F. and L.G.N.F.; supervision: E.F.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
