Avoiding Food Neophobia and Increasing Consumer Acceptance of New Food Trends—A Decade of Research

Shahida Anusha Siddiqui (), Oscar Zannou, Ikawati Karim, Kasmiati, Nour M. H. Awad, Janusz Gołaszewski, Volker Heinz and Sergiy Smetana ()
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Shahida Anusha Siddiqui: Campus Straubing for Biotechnology and Sustainability, Technical University of Munich, Essigberg 3, 94315 Straubing, Germany
Oscar Zannou: Department of Food Engineering, Ondokuz Mayis University, Samsun 55139, Turkey
Ikawati Karim: Agribusiness Department, Universitas Sulawesi Barat, Majene 91412, Indonesia
Kasmiati: Agribusiness Department, Universitas Sulawesi Barat, Majene 91412, Indonesia
Nour M. H. Awad: Department of Food Engineering, Ondokuz Mayis University, Samsun 55139, Turkey
Janusz Gołaszewski: Center for Bioeconomy and Renewable Energies, Department of Genetics, Plant Breeding and Bioresource Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, 10-719 Olsztyn, Poland
Volker Heinz: German Institute of Food Technologies (DIL e.V.), Prof.-von-Klitzing-Straße 7, 49610 Quakenbrück, Germany
Sergiy Smetana: German Institute of Food Technologies (DIL e.V.), Prof.-von-Klitzing-Straße 7, 49610 Quakenbrück, Germany

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 16, 1-25

Abstract: The increasingly fierce competition in food trends requires producers to innovate and develop new foods to be accepted and to avoid neophobia by consumers at the same time. Food neophobia’s motivational adoption barriers include the consumption of novel foods, social norms and conflicting eating goals. Therefore, appropriate strategies are needed to avoid neophobia amid the presence of new food trends in the market. Efforts to avoid food neophobia can also be accepted as part of the sustainability concept, in which the consumer has new foods to choose from in order to reduce scarcity in one particular type of food. The food industry is also challenged to produce healthy food by producing food from natural ingredients. In this article, new food trends and advances in food processing are described, and through them, strategies to avoid neophobia and increase consumer acceptance of new food trends are referenced. Neophobia meets marketing food products delivered to consumers facing motivational adoption barriers, such as the consumption of novel foods, social norms and conflicting eating goals, which are indicated to be challenges to purchase drivers in new food trends. Tasting foods is indicated as one of the most efficient means to ensure neophobia reduction in new foods and new food trends. Other factors identified to reduce food neophobia are education, income, taste and exposure to novel foods. Some preconditions for novel foods to be accepted by consumers are related to the very nature of food innovation, the manufacturer’s features and market circumstances. Food processed with advanced technologies may differ depending on the brand of the food production company and the knowledge of consumers about the novel foods. Moreover, food technology is seen as more acceptable for plant food products based or natural ingredients for consumers. In addition to the focus on health benefits, it is supports the sustainability of food systems. Another accidental element is the transparent traceability system providing accurate and adequate information about such novel foods.

Keywords: neophobia; new food trends; consumer acceptance; novel food; sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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