| Resumo: |
Food choice is a process that involves psychological, social, cultural, economic, and biological forces. Food acceptance is related to the willingness to consumption of a particular product. In the case of insects as food, in the human diet, studies have shown that this practice brings nutritional, ecological, social and economic benefits and it is a promising alternative for sustainable food consumption. Despite the advantages of producing and consuming insects, Brazilian consumers, who are unaccustomed to insect ingestion, have a negative perception of that practice. This research studies the willingness to accept insects as food among São Paulo´s consumers, considering the awareness of their benefits, economic income, insect´s appearance and consumption occasion. The research was developed in two stages. The first one, considered focus groups that brought information of consumers opinions of insect as food in the human diet. The second stage considered two on-line experiments: the first experiment was a 2x2x2 factorial design for a sample of 206 individuals. The dependent variable was the willingness to accept insects as food. The independents variables studied were: food appearance (visible and non visible insect), communication of benefits (present and absent) and economic income (major and minor).The second experiment had a 2x2 factorial design, with 243 individuals, considering another way of assessing visibility. The factors and their respective levels were: appearance of the food (visible and non visible insect) and consumption local (Asian restaurant or consumer´s house). The results showed that the higher income consumers have better acceptance than those with lower income (F [1,205] = 40,715; p-value ˂ 0.001). The communication of the benefits of insect consumption was also significant and resulted in greater acceptance (F [1,205] = 32,017, p-value ˂ 0.000). The consumer had a better disposition of acceptance when the food was presented without visibility of the insect (F [1,242] = 54,97; p-value ˂ 0,000). Finally, the results confirmed that the acceptance of insect as food is higher in the non-traditional place, with the restaurant being preferred than the consumer's home (F [1,242] = 9,46; p-value ˂ 0.002). The research found evidence that positively influence the acceptance of insect consumption. Therefore, willingness to accept is greater considering: to present the benefits of the production and consumption of insects; be targeted at high-income consumers; provide food with low visibility of insects, being used as ingredients in processed foods, without changing the traditional appearance of the product and be offered at places like restaurants. Finally, the results constitute an academic contribution to the area of consumer behavior, by expanding the evidence about the model of Furst et al. (1996) and providing results of variables that affect the consumption of insects as food that had not been studied yet. At the managerial level, the results provide information for the food industry and for governmental and philanthropic institutions. With the results obtained, the commercialization and marketing strategies for insect food products can be established with greater clarity. |
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