*3.3. Di*ff*erences across Generations*

The regressions in Table 3 failed to reject the null hypothesis that the conditional expectations of TENV and TNUT were unaffected by the respondent's age. However, several studies have shown that older generations show different food preferences to younger generations [49,50,59]. To investigate this point further, we exploited the large sample size of our survey to run separate regression for age groups.

We split the sample into four age groups: Generation Z (age between 18 and 24), Millennials (or Generation Y, age between 25 and 39), Generation X (between 40 and 54), and Baby Boomers+ (age 55 or above). Figures 3 and 4 illustrate the distribution of TNUT and TENV by age group, respectively. An χ2 test failed to reject the null hypothesis of independence between TNUT and age groups at a 95% confidence level (*p*-value 0.057). Instead, the independence of TENV and age group was rejected (*p*-value 0.01).

**Figure 3.** Distribution of TNUT by generations.

**Figure 4.** Distribution of TENV by generations.

Tables 7 and 8 report the outcome of the regressions of TNUT and TENV by generation groups, respectively. For the reader's convenience, the results of the χ<sup>2</sup> test on the joint significance of

coefficients of groups of variables (Demography, Education, Employment status, Organic, and Origin) are summarized in Table 9.


**Table 7.** Regression of willingness to try food with upcycled ingredients and superior nutrition properties (TNUT) by generations.




**Table 9.** Summary of the findings of the generation analysis \*.

\* The null hypothesis that all coefficients in the variable group are jointly equal to zero was: (✗) not rejected, () rejected at 90% confidence level, () rejected at 95% confidence level in an χ<sup>2</sup> test.

The analysis by age group showed that the drivers of willingness to accept food with upcycled ingredients were not monotonic with respect to the respondent's age. Each generation had distinctive characteristics that were not necessarily similar to the next age group. This result explains why the coefficients of the AGE and AGE2 variables were not statistically different from zero in the full sample regression and suggests that the ensemble of beliefs driving the behavior of a generation may be defined in contrast to the previous generation.

Generation Z's (age 18–24) acceptance of food with olive by-products and improved nutrition characteristics was driven mainly by technophobia. Working status affects decisions, with students showing a higher willingness to try than unemployed respondents (An χ<sup>2</sup> test rejected the null hypothesis that the coefficients w2 and w3 were equal with *p*-value 0.006.). The coefficient of the quadratic form of the variable AGE on TNUT was statistically different from zero, suggesting that preferences within Generation Z were not homogeneous. Generation Z's decisions to try food with upcycled ingredients that reduce environmental impact were affected by technophobia and working status. A positive association with organic purchase was found as well.

The willingness of Millennials (age 25–39) to try upcycled ingredients with improved nutrition attributes was driven by technophobia alone. Decisions regarding environmentally friendly by-products were driven by technophobia, education, and organic purchase. The importance of product origin was not associated with the dependent variables.

The drivers of Generation X's (40–54) decisions regarding TENV and TNUT were similar. The coefficients of Employment status variables, TFI, and ORIGIN were statistically different from zero in both regressions at a 95% confidence level. ORGANIC was statistically significant at a 95% confidence level in the TENV regression and at a 90% confidence level in the TNUT regression.

Finally, the age group Baby Boomers+ (55+) exhibited different behaviors depending on whether the upcycled ingredients were associated with improved nutrition or environmental responsibility. In the former case, technophobia was the only driver. In the latter case, ORGANIC and ORIGIN variables were associated with higher values of willingness to try.

#### **4. Discussion**

Among the greatest challenges the world faces today are how to ensure that a growing global population has access to enough healthy food and how to reduce food loss and waste. Rethinking the food system and implementing circular resource management systems will help mitigate the effects of food production on the environment and limited availability of resources [60].

Waste valorization has been defined by Arancon et al. [61] as the process of converting waste into more useful products. For example, the olive tree pruning produces 25 Kg of waste biomass for each tree annually, and approximately 25% is leaves [62]. Olive leaves are rich in phenolic compounds [6], and the food sector should use them to produce value-added products [25]. However, consumer acceptance of these products is fundamental to their market uptake.

This study aimed at answering two main research questions: What interest do consumers have in food products enriched with waste-to-value food? Which variables are important predictors of consumer willingness to buy food products enriched with waste-to-value food? Previous results

suggest that, although the production of foods with up-cycled ingredients is technically feasible [6,7], carefully-designed marketing campaigns are necessary to ensure consumer acceptance and, ultimately, economic success [38,45]. Aschemann-Witzel and Peschel [27], analyzing how Danish consumers react to the use of by-products in some food products, indicated that specific brand, design, and specific quality information on these new ingredients could improve consumer attitudes towards the "waste-to-value" products.

Our study is useful to highlight what specific consumer profiles may be targeted for marketing campaigns. Environmentally responsible organic consumers, in fact, are likely to be an important niche for food with olive by-products. In the sample analyzed, buyers of organic food were expected to be more willing to try this novel food if it was more beneficial for the environment. This result is quite well known in the literature and might be explained with the special concern for the environmental aspects that organic buyers show [25,63–65].

The preference of organic consumers for such novel environmentally sustainable products is very important, considering the current market trends. In fact, nowadays, organic food is not a niche market anymore, accounting for approximately 3% of the total value of the agri-food sector [66,67]. In particular, Italy is ranked sixth in the world among the countries with the largest area cultivated with organic farming methods [68,69]. Furthermore, environmentally sustainable consumption is gaining importance in the market, with consumers showing higher interest in the impacts on natural resources of their food purchases [23].

On the contrary, nutritional attributes were not appealing for environmentalist consumers, as the lack of association between organic purchase and acceptance of upcycled food with superior nutritional properties showed. This finding seems in line with Grasso and Assioli [26], who analyzed three different groups of consumers and the group called "environmentalist", more interested in the environment, had the lowest rejection towards upcycled sun-flower flour in biscuits.

Another result deserving particular attention is one of product origin. In fact, respondents considering product origin an important or very important issue in food choice were more likely to be willing to try food with olive by-products. As product origin is a very important driver of consumer choice in the Italian market [5], this result is of interest because it suggests that there could be a marketing potential for local food made with upcycled ingredients. In fact, our results confirm that the origin of the by-product may mitigate the food technophobia, and origin information on the olive by-products can increase consumer acceptance and preference for food with upcycled ingredients.

Interesting insights on the consumer characteristics can be derived from the differences across the generations analyzed. In fact, the drivers of willingness to accept food with upcycled ingredients were not the same with respect to the respondent's age. Each generation had distinctive characteristics that were not necessarily similar to the next age group. This result explains why the coefficients of the AGE and AGE2 variables were not statistically different from zero in the full sample regression and suggests that the ensemble of beliefs driving the behavior of a generation may be defined in contrast to the previous generation.

For the youngest Z Generation, technophobia and working status were the relevant drivers in determining acceptance of food with by-products with improved nutrition characteristics or with reduced environmental impact. In this latter case, a positive association with organic purchase and a slight importance of a product's origin was found as well, confirming the general result regarding organic consumers and product origin discussed above.

For Millennials, technophobia alone seemed to drive the acceptance of food with upcycled ingredients with improved nutrition attributes, while decisions regarding environmentally friendly by-products were driven by technophobia, education, and organic purchase. Interestingly, a distinctive characteristic of Millennials, compared to other age groups, was that the importance of product origin was not associated with their willingness to accept, thus highlighting a different behavior of that generation regarding this product's feature.

Generation X seemed, instead, to show more similar and coherent preferences regarding both food with upcycled ingredients with improved nutrition attributes and lower environmental impact. For this group of consumers, technophobia, product's origin, and organic consumption were all relevant in affecting their purchase intentions.

Baby Boomers+, instead, showed different preference structures. For food with upcycled ingredients with improved nutritional properties, technophobia seemed to be the only driver. For environmentally sustainable food with up-cycled ingredients, the willingness to accept was mainly driven by product origin and organic preferences.

Differences across generations allow even better targeting of market delivery of the product, focusing the attention on the specific driver of each age group segment. In fact, results, if confirmed by further surveys in other countries and with larger and more representative samples, suggest that different age groups respond differently to product characteristics and they could be better targeted with more specific and ad-hoc campaigns. For example, the aspect of a product's origin seemed not to be relevant in determining the Millennials acceptance for food with up-cycled ingredients, and thus it could be argued that to target such consumers, the attention should be paid to better presenting the "low technological component" in the production process, rather than the local origin of the product to the consumer.

A final consideration should be given to the fact that, at the time of the survey, the proposed novel product was not yet available in the market. This aspect might represent a weakness in the proposed analysis. The fact that consumers were not able to test or see the product could have influenced their replies. However, the results presented here could be useful in the market launch of these products as they target consumers who have shown willingness to purchase such products (e.g., consumers of organic and local products) according to their specific age group.

#### **5. Conclusions**

Consumer's general perception of the use of upcycled ingredients for food production is that the food industry tries to save money with inputs obtained at a lower cost [70]. Consumers accept many by-products for pharmaceutical use because they are rich in healthy components. The acceptance of by-products used for food production is a more complex matter because of the influence of certain levels of food neophobia or technophobia that might hamper the uptake of such products.

The present study confirmed this general influence as both the complete sample and all age groups of consumers demonstrated that technophobia was negatively influenced by the probability of accepting food enriched with olive oil by-products [33]. However, two major determinants of consumption of food made with upcycled ingredients emerged: organic consumers are more likely to accept this novel food and, also, consumers who consider product origin an important or very important issue in food choice are more likely to be willing to try food with olive by-products. The impact of such aspects slightly differs when referred to different product's characteristics. When we consider products with superior nutrition properties, the association with origin attributes was stronger, while when looking at food with lower environmental impact, the consumption of organic food seemed to be highly associated with the acceptance of the novel food.

This latter aspect also emerged if we look at the results for the generation groups. In all the age groups, the consumption of organic products was positively associated with a likely acceptance of food made with upcycled ingredients, which show a lower environmental impact.

Results here presented would thus suggest that there could be a core of consumers interested in organic or local products, that could also favor the uptake of these novel foods made with upcycled ingredients in the market. Marketing policies are of great importance in that sense because indicating the benefits these foods could bring to health and the environment clearly in the label should help to deliver novel food to the greater public. According to the results of this study, developing organic or "local" varieties of food with upcycled ingredients might increase the probability of consumer acceptance.

Our study adds another piece to the puzzle of the research into upcycling or waste-to-value products in the area of food where studies are yet scarce [25–27,33].

However, this manuscript has two main limitations. First, the sample analyzed in this study is not representative of the whole Italian population. However, given the size of the sample, the relationships between the variables analyzed and the positive purchase intention eventually expressed remain valid and allow us to obtain interesting results. Second, as also reported by Grasso and Assioli [26], because upcycled ingredients for food products are not on the market yet and there is not an appropriate definition of these products, our study might suffer from hypothetical bias, which could have affected the estimation of consumer acceptance.

Future research is needed to confirm our results in other countries and using different products and/or upcycled ingredients. In particular, an experimental approach can be used to overcome the hypothetical bias.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, M.A.P., S.C., and C.R.; Data curation, M.A.P., S.C., and C.R.; Formal analysis, M.A.P., S.C., and C.R.; Funding acquisition, M.A.P.; Investigation, M.A.P., S.C., and C.R.; Methodology, M.A.P., S.C., and C.R.; Resources, M.A.P.; Supervision, M.A.P., S.C., and C.R.; Writing—original draft, M.A.P., S.C., and C.R.; Writing—review and editing, M.A.P., S.C., and C.R. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research was funded by the AGER 2 Project, grant number 2016-0105.

**Acknowledgments:** We would like to thank Carla Daniela Di Mattia for inspiring and supporting our research interests in consumer acceptance of novel food enriched with upcycled ingredients.

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

**Data Availability:** The data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author (M.A.P.), upon reasonable request.

#### **References**


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