The Potential Future of Insects in the European Food System: A Systematic Review Based on the Consumer Point of View

Abstract

Edible insects recently gained attention as a potential contributor to the future sustainability of the food system. Insect farming has indeed shown to have environmental and nutritional benefits, but edible insects are still an unusual foodstuff in Europe. The purpose of this article is to analyze the barriers and drivers of insect consumption in Europe and to identify the most promising strategies to convince consumers to include insect-based products in their diets. To answer these research questions, a systematic review of the literature on the consumer's point of view about insects as food was performed. The results show that the main barrier to the development of this market is related to the psychological rejection of consumers induced by disgust toward entomophagy. To break down these barriers, it is essential to increase the general knowledge about the environmental and nutritional benefits of entomophagy. Furthermore, the limited size of the edible insect market appears to be a structural barrier. Expanding the reach of the market and consumer familiarity with edible insects will increase their acceptability. Finally, some product-related strategies are also highlighted. Furthermore, this article brings new knowledge about the effectiveness of the environmental motive in convincing consumers to try edible insects.

Keywords: consumer perception; edible insect; entomophagy; insect food; meat substitutes; sustainable protein.

Figure 1

PRISMA flow diagram for the article selection process (numbers in bold indicate the number of papers for each stage of the systematic review).

Figure 2

Geographical distribution of publications.

Figure 3

Distributions of articles per year of publication.

Figure 4

Geographical distributions of selected publications.