Cross-Cultural Comparison between German, French and Dutch Consumer Preferences for Meat Substitutes

Sustainability is becoming an increasingly important consideration for consumers when purchasing food. As meat production has a significant impact on the environment, meat substitutes are becoming more and more popular in Europe. However, consumers who regularly buy meat substitutes are still the exception. Although there are some initial results indicating why this proportion is still low, most research has been concentrated in the Netherlands. This paper aims to compare reasons for consuming or not consuming meat substitutes in three European countries—Germany, the Netherlands and France. As... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Ramona Weinrich
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2018
Reihe/Periodikum: Sustainability, Vol 10, Iss 6, p 1819 (2018)
Verlag/Hrsg.: MDPI AG
Schlagwörter: meat substitutes / sustainability / focus group discussions / cross-cultural comparisons / consumer preferences / Environmental effects of industries and plants / TD194-195 / Renewable energy sources / TJ807-830 / Environmental sciences / GE1-350
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-26625994
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : https://doi.org/10.3390/su10061819

Sustainability is becoming an increasingly important consideration for consumers when purchasing food. As meat production has a significant impact on the environment, meat substitutes are becoming more and more popular in Europe. However, consumers who regularly buy meat substitutes are still the exception. Although there are some initial results indicating why this proportion is still low, most research has been concentrated in the Netherlands. This paper aims to compare reasons for consuming or not consuming meat substitutes in three European countries—Germany, the Netherlands and France. As very little is known about the underlying reasons, an explorative approach was chosen. Focus group discussions were carried out in all three countries, six altogether. The results show that all participants can enumerate meat substitutes. The main reason for not consuming meat substitutes is the taste of meat. Further, eating habits seem to be fixed and convenience might also be an impediment to reducing meat consumption in favour of meat substitutes, as is confusion regarding healthy eating.