Acceptance of alternative meats among different dietarian styles: An explorative analysis in Italy

The global rise in meat consumption is one of the major concerns among food researchers and policymakers. In this panorama, alternative protein sources like plant-based meat, insect-based flours, and cultured meat emerged as potential solutions. Many contributions have been published on consumers’ perception of meat alternatives, however, only a few of them presented a direct comparison between the three categories and none of them explicitly scrutinized the different attitudes that omnivorous, flexitarians or veg*an consumers show towards them. With the aim to fill this gap, an online questionnaire was conducted to explore the willingness to substitute conventional meats with the alternative options. Surveying 678 Italian consumers representing each dietary group this research sheds light on the complexities of consumer attitudes towards alternative protein sources and offers valuable insights for policymakers and marketers seeking to foster sustainable dietary choices. Applying ANOVA and post-hoc comparison of means test, we found that plant-based meat showed promise to non- omnivorous consumers, while hesitation prevailed towards insect-based flours and Title Page cultured meat among all dietary groups. Vegetarians displayed the least willingness to adopt insect-based flours due to potential dietary disruption. Surprisingly, both omnivores and flexitarians exhibited negative attitudes towards cultured meat, possibly due to taste and production concerns. Understanding diverse dietary group preferences is vital for promoting meat alternatives in the Italian market through targeted interventions and education.