Survey on Food Preferences of University Students: from Tradition to New Food Customs?

Cecilia Conti, Annamaria Costa, Claudia Maria Balzaretti, Vincenzo Russo and Doriana Eurosia Angela Tedesco
Additional contact information
Cecilia Conti: Department of Environmental Science and Policy (ESP), Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 2, 20133 Milano, Italy
Annamaria Costa: Department of Health, Animal Science and Food Safety (VESPA), Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 10, 20133 Milano, Italy
Claudia Maria Balzaretti: Department of Health, Animal Science and Food Safety (VESPA), Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 10, 20133 Milano, Italy
Vincenzo Russo: International University of Languages and Media (IULM), Via Carlo Bo, 1, 20143 Milano, Italy
Doriana Eurosia Angela Tedesco: Department of Environmental Science and Policy (ESP), Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 2, 20133 Milano, Italy

Agriculture, 2018, vol. 8, issue 10, 1-12

Abstract: Humankind currently consumes more resources than our planet is able to generate. In our web survey, we investigated insects and earthworms, as a possible future food source. We targeted the survey to university students, as the possible future consumers and trendsetters of new food. A total of 3556 university students (18–29 years old) completed it. The aims of this study were to evaluate participants’ food preferences and their willingness to taste foods containing terrestrial invertebrates. Data were processed using Cronbach’s alfa to assess the reliability of each constructs. The food preferences showed pizza-focaccia and pasta at the highest rankings, followed by fruit and vegetables. Males have a higher preference for any kind of animal protein source. Gender influenced food preference and willingness to eat food with insect or earthworm ingredients. The results indicated that students were prone to consider novel food into the Italian diet and to familiarize with them in the future. Insects/earthworms were more accepted in salty snacks. Highlighting the essential amino-acids daily requirements of a snack with earthworm meal did not improve the willingness to taste it. Information and awareness of future global food demand can play a fundamental role in accepting new food.

Keywords: university students; food preference; insects; earthworms; gender (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/8/10/155/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/8/10/155/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:8:y:2018:i:10:p:155-:d:173695

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().