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Social Desirability: Consumer Aspects
Abstract
Chapter 4 is the first of two chapters on the question whether a diet shift is socially desirable. It takes a behavioural perspective, whereas Chapter 5 is oriented towards processes at the level of organisations and markets. Accordingly, the main theme of the present chapter is how a diet shift is related to the behaviour of producers and consumers. The degree to which a shift “fits” into existing behavioural patterns is an important argument for its desirability. The same applies even more strongly to its future fit into the behavioural patterns of the next decades. Alternatively, whether a lack of fit will create an insurmountable problem depends on the feasibility of the measures that can be taken to mitigate the main shortcomings of the options.
To get more insight into the various influences on food choices, this chapter argues that human behaviour is a very flexible phenomenon and that each particular manifestation of it can be the result of many determinants. These determinants can be sorted into a logical order on the basis of the time frames that they involve. The fact that, for example, impulse buying has another time frame than consciously buying says something about the different underlying processes. Generally, the time frames that are relevant for behaviour range from short-term (i.e. taking less than a second) to long-term (i.e. taking almost a lifetime) and extremely long-term (i.e. taking many human generations).
The framework opens the way to look at influences on behaviour from various perspectives. This will be done in the next sections, which describe three consumer-oriented research projects. Section 4.2 takes a long-term view on behaviour; it starts at the level of distal processes and analyses the socio-cultural changes in society that can make a diet shift more attractive or less attractive to producers and consumers.In contrast, Sections 4.3 and 4.4 take a short-term view on behaviour; these projects start at the level of perceptual and rational processes to analyse consumers’ reactions to novel products.
... Although some have labelled meat as the most significant of foods, particularly rich in social and cultural meaning (Seleshe, Jo, & Lee, 2014;Twigg, 1983), its true societal impact has not received the attention it deserves. For policy makers, this would nonetheless represent a strategic factor in view of the imminent courses of action that are required to set up sustainable meat production systems (Boland et al., 2013;de Boer, Hoek, & Elzerman, 2006;Hoogland, de Boer, & Boersema, 2005;Vranken, Avermaete, Petalios, & Mathijs, 2014), and to improve food security (Población, 2013). Instead, a poor understanding of the factual bearing of meat traditions jeopardizes attempts to predict trends in global meat intake and to moderate its consumption (Vinnari & Tapio, 2009), even if such intentions are emerging amongst a considerable minority of consumers (Latvala et al., 2012;Vranken et al., 2014;Walters & Portness, 1999). ...
... Understanding the historical trajectory of meat is therefore essential (Burkert, Girard, & Smith, 1987;Jones, 2007;Pollan, 2013). However, tracing this historical framework is a complex task, as meat is embedded in numerous ecological, cultural, and social processes (Bulliet, 2005;deFrance, 2009), and subjected to personal and perceptual interferences (de Boer et al., 2006;Turner & Thompson, 2013). These effects can usefully be understood as acting in a cascade-like framework, creating heterogeneity between and within societies and influencing contemporary behaviour. ...
... Whereas the physiological level refers to biological evolution, cultural elements gradually gain in importance over the different layers to achieve their maximal impact on the holistic top level. While the lower levels are situated within evolutionary and distal time frames, the upper ones become progressively more proximal, heterogeneous, and context-related (de Boer et al., 2006). Yet, we would like to warn against a too stereotypical viewing of prehistory over long stretches of time in contrast to a succession of more recent epochs, which may create the illusion of a transition from a biological to a social state of being (Jones, 2007). ...
... In order for the new meat to be socially acceptable and to become a preferred option for consumers, it needs to satisfy several criteria. Below is a list of five main criteria informed by the work of Molnár (1989), de Boer and Hoek (2006) and Schmidinger (2012) developed predominantly for western consumers and individuals who are in a position to make food choices. ...
This chapter summarizes the global problems associated with livestock production and meat consumption and shows solution strategies through replacing animal products with plant-based alternatives. The positive effects of plant-based alternatives on human health and the environment are reviewed together with approaches for reducing world hunger. Psychological strategies for nutritional transitions towards more sustainable consumption patterns and criteria for market success of meat alternatives are presented. This is followed by an overview of meat alternatives – from soy1, lupine or wheat based, to bleeding burgers and artificial intelligence concepts. Marketing strategies and best practice policy suggestions complete the chapter.
... In order for the new meat to be socially acceptable and to become a preferred option for consumers, it needs to satisfy several criteria. Below is a list of five main criteria informed by the work of Molnár (1989), de Boer and Hoek (2006) and Schmidinger (2012) developed predominantly for western consumers and individuals who are in a position to make food choices. ...
This chapter summarizes the global problems associated with livestock production and meat consumption and shows solution strategies through replacing animal products with plant-based alternatives. The positive effects of plant-based alternatives on human health and the environment are reviewed together with approaches for reducing world hunger. Psychological strategies for nutritional transitions towards more sustainable consumption patterns and criteria for market success of meat alternatives are presented. This is followed by an overview of meat alternatives - from soy1, lupine or wheat based, to bleeding burgers and artificial intelligence concepts. Marketing strategies and best practice policy suggestions complete the chapter.
Aqueous fractionation of protein from lupin seeds was investigated as an alternative to the conventional wet fractionation processes, which make use of organic solvents. The effect of extraction temperature was studied and the consequences for downstream processing were analysed. Omitting the extraction of oil with organic solvents resulted in a protein isolate that contained 0.02–0.07 g oil g−1 protein isolate, depending on the exact extraction conditions. Nevertheless, the protein functionality of the aqueous fractionated lupin protein isolate was similar to the conventional lupin protein isolate. The protein isolate suspension could be concentrated to 0.25 g mL−1 using ultrafiltration, which provides a relevant concentration for a range of high-protein products. Based on the results, we conclude that aqueous fractionation can be a method to lower the environmental impact of the extraction of proteins from legumes that contain water- and dilute salt-soluble proteins.
During the 20th century hunger has become a problem of poverty amidst plenty rather than absolute food scarcity. The question is whether this will remain so or whether the hunger of the poor will once more be exacerbated by rising food prices. In this paper we discuss biophysical conditions, social forces and non-linear interactions that may critically influence the global availability of food in the long term. Until 2050, the global demand for primary phytomass for food will more than double, while competing claims to natural resources for other purposes (including biobased non-foods) will increase. A sober assessment of the earth¿s biophysical potential for biomass production, which recognizes competing claims and unavoidable losses, suggests that this is in itself still large enough for accommodating this rising demand. However, the exploitation of this biophysical potential proceeds through technical paradigms that set a relative maximum to food production. In addition, socio-economic mechanisms make the food economy run up against a ceiling even before this maximum is reached. As a consequence, current developments may well entail a new trend change in international markets. These developments include the depletion of land and water reserves, the stagnation of the potential yields of major crops, the rise in energy prices, and the way in which systemic socio-economic factors lead to a strong underutilization of production possibilities in the developing world. Given these conditions, the avoidance of steep rises in food prices may depend on the timely relaxation of socio-economic constraints in developing countries and on timely breakthroughs in sustainable yield increases, biorefinement and non-farm production systems. Myopic expectations make it doubtful whether spontaneous market forces will provide the necessary incentives for this, which may be reason for societal actors to consider the need for more active policies
Current patterns of meat consumption are considered to be unsustainable. Sustainable development may require that consumers choose to eat smaller quantities of meat as well as meat that is produced in a more sensible way. A policy tool directed at consumer behaviour is that of enhancing consumer-oriented transparency of the production chain. Transparency is expected to allow people to make more mindful consumption choices, in line with their personal values. As most dietary habits are deeply rooted in the past, an assessment of the effect of transparency on food choices requires a historical perspective to food culture. Such a perspective provides us with at least two trends of relevance to meat consumption: increased concern for animal welfare and an ongoing dissociation of meat from its animal origin. Combined, these two trends may interact to allow people to consume in ways that actually conflict with their personal values: their concern for animal welfare does not translate into corresponding food choices, as the product meat does not remind them of its animal origin. An experiment was designed to test the hypothesis that people sensitive to animal welfare will respond to increased salience of animal origin and of animal welfare, and that they will show this by either avoiding to buy meat or by favouring free range and organic meat. Results confirmed the expected effect. The effect was observed mainly among those with Universalistic values, which limits the ultimate prospects of transparency as a policy tool.
The concept behind this book is to take a holistic view of food texture, starting with the determination of food texture, its perception in the mouth, and its measurement by both sensory and instrumental methods, and to examine the relation between those methods. The book has been divided into two sections. The first deals with perception of food texture and techniques for its measurement. The second focuses on individual groups of food commodities. The first section is interlaced with appropriate food-related examples to reinforce the applied nature of the subject.
Throughout the history of the scientific measurement of food acceptance, there has been a growing recognition that the use of preference alone, in the sense of pure affective judgement, is an insufficient measure as an explanatory variable for food choice. As evidenced by the data on the prediction of food consumption behavior illustrated by the work of (Kamenetzky et al. 1957), (Lau et al. 1979), (Pilgrim and Kamen 1963
), (Sidel et al. 1972), the prediction of food consumption behavior from preference judgments at best accounts for only about 50% of the variance in consumption. The relevance of cognitive processes in food acceptance has been considered by (Olson 1981), (Thomson and McEwan 1988), (Rappaport & Peters 1980), (Worsley 1963). The consumer and market research community have also recognized the importance of so-called situational variables in understanding consumer behavior an indicated in the paper by (Belk 1975), and in particular usage conditions as represented by (Kakkar and Lutz 1981) and a pioneering work by (Stefflre 1971). The use of Kelly’s personal construct theory (1955) and repertory grid, illustrated by the work of (McEwan and Thomson 1963) as one approach for evaluating the contextual aspects of food acceptance.