Researchers from Aarhus College’s MAPP Centre surveyed shoppers from 4 European international locations to gauge their perceptions of animal-free dairy – with a selected concentrate on precision fermentation-derived merchandise – and decide how and why attitudes differed throughout totally different shopper teams.
Consumers from the UK, France, Denmark and Germany have been requested about their stage of data in regards to the expertise – which exterior of meals manufacture is extensively used within the pharmaceutical trade – and instructed how it may be leveraged to create microbially-synthesized milk proteins with out involving a reside animal. The researchers then sought to guage the shoppers’ perceptions on product naturalness, style and sensory expertise, sustainability, affordability, and different associations. A variety of plant-based, hybrid, and precision fermentation dairy options have been in contrast, together with standard dairy.
“We needed to reply three questions,” mentioned one of many authors, affiliate professor Marija Banovic who works on the Division of Administration on the MAPP Centre. “If we have now these merchandise available on the market, would they be capable to stand out? So we in contrast them to different dairy options, comparable to plant-based.
“The second query we needed to handle was what are the attributes that resonate with the buyer – that will ‘catch their eye’ and really make them settle for this product?
“And the ultimate query was, if accepted, will this acceptance proceed over time?”
Whereas the paper is but to be revealed in full, Banovic offered among the key findings throughout January’s precision fermentation of milk proteins convention organized by the Meals & Bio Cluster Denmark and held in Copenhagen.
Increasing on earlier analysis revealed by herself and college professor Klaus G. Grunert on shopper attitudes on well being and naturalness1 and a separate shopper research on the buyer acceptance of precision fermentation expertise2, this analysis assesses in additional depth the perceptual boundaries to adopting precision fermentation-derived dairy in Europe.
Whereas dairy options that comprise precision fermentation-derived milk proteins are offered in a number of markets – notably, the US – such meals merchandise aren’t accessible in Europe. That is largely on account of EU regulation that requires producers to submit a Novel Meals file to the European Meals Security Authority (EFSA) as a way to acquire approval – a course of that’s but to yield a optimistic final result, with the primary ever utility, from US-based Excellent Day, courting again to 2022.
Although such merchandise aren’t accessible to European shoppers but, the researchers argued that data of early shopper perceptions may assist overcome boundaries to future adoption.
From ‘synthetic’ to ‘progressive’
Shoppers have been requested about their high affiliation when confronted with details about precision fermentation expertise. The responses have been combined – Danish shoppers leaned in direction of unfavourable associations, with essentially the most continuously used phrases being ‘synthetic,’ ‘good,’ and ‘future’. Within the UK, ‘fascinating’, ‘pleasant’ and ‘synthetic’ have been the highest associations; in France – ‘microbes’, ‘fermentation’ and ‘well being’, and in Germany, these have been ‘environmentally pleasant’, ‘animal’, and ‘microbes’.
Notably, shoppers strongly related sustainability and eco-friendliness with precision fermentation, placing the expertise second to plant-based options in most international locations.
However when it got here to what’s seen as ‘wholesome’, precision fermentation got here final, with standard and plant-based merchandise perceived because the healthiest, adopted by hybrid dairy.
On perceived style and sensory attraction, precision fermentation additionally fared poorly, with Banovic telling the convention that producers and retailers may flip to sensory advertising and marketing that emphasizes interesting flavors as a way to overcome unfavourable style perceptions.
‘Hybrid’ potential
Subsequent, the researchers requested shoppers to charge 9 merchandise, together with milk, ice cream, and protein bars, primarily based on the manufacturing methodology concerned of their manufacture. Right here, precision fermentation emerged because the possible challenger of the plant-based class, whereas hybrid dairy – notably merchandise that mix conventional dairy and precision fermentation-derived components – have been the second most-popular amongst buyers. Conventional dairy was the best choice throughout all nations, reflecting the class’s market dominance and provenance.
“We thought that plant-based merchandise could be the second most-popular class,” defined Banovic. “However what got here second have been hybrids that mixed precision fermentation and traditional dairy components. After which in third place, merchandise derived completely by precision fermentation had a comparable rating to plant-based ones.”
The findings recommend that there might be urge for food for a brand new dairy options class that improves on the sensory and dietary properties of plant-based options. In Europe, plant-based gross sales decelerated in 2022, as did funding pooled by traders into the sector, however the phase continued to develop each in worth and gross sales phrases in 2022, in accordance with knowledge from the Good Meals Institute, a suppose tank.
Requested if hybrid dairy – a class that’s possible extra acquainted to shoppers in Europe – may assist facilitate the acceptance of precision fermentation dairy in Europe – Banovic answered affirmatively.
“What we are able to see from shopper research is that this light, pure transition by hybrid merchandise can really assist a lot better than going straight for 100% precision fermentation-derived dairy,” she instructed us. “We noticed that with hybrid meat merchandise, so I believe there’s scope for hybrid dairy to assist in the transition.”
How did ice cream, milk and protein bars fare?
Whereas Danish shoppers had a stronger desire for hybrid merchandise in comparison with precision fermentation-derived dairy, the image was totally different elsewhere. German shoppers picked PF-derived milk options in second, as did French buyers, whereas UK shoppers trusted plant-based dairy options. Dairy milk was everybody’s best choice, with the French expressing the strongest desire for conventional dairy.
For ice cream, Danish buyers picked a mixture of standard and precision-fermentation derived protein merchandise as their second most most well-liked possibility; the Germans narrowly selected a plant-based and precision fermentation hybrid in second place; the French opted for 100% precision fermentation-derived ice cream there, as did the British.
Protein bars was the class the place different manufacturing strategies got here nearer to catching up with conventional dairy, notably in Germany the place 24% of buyers picked plant-based options versus 28.7% who selected standard dairy.
When all knowledge was aggregated, the proverbial rankings have been led by standard dairy merchandise, adopted by hybrids that mixed 50% precision fermentation-derived components and 50% standard, whereas plant-based and 100% precision-fermentation merchandise shared the third place.
When it got here to buyers’ willingness to pay the upper price ticket of animal-free dairy, the researchers discovered that not one of the 4 shopper teams have been keen to satisfy both the reference worth nor an estimated worth for precision fermentation merchandise, although some (Denmark and the UK) have been barely much less unwilling in comparison with others (France). “Total, we discovered a really low buying willingness and excessive worth sensitivity,” Banovic defined, including that the researchers noticed an analogous development amongst US shoppers. “As a result of these merchandise are fairly excessive in worth, we might recommend value-driven worth fashions or a promotional discourse.”
In a separate analysis challenge Banovic’s staff are presently trying into shopper pricing sensitivity, evaluating the US market with Europe. Requested how shopper perceptions in contrast, the affiliate professor instructed us: “We simply completed with the info assortment on this new cross-cultural research, which includes three EU international locations and the US, the place we have been trying particularly into shopper willingness to pay for animal-free dairy milk. We’re within the strategy of writing it up, so I can’t reveal a lot, however I can verify that customers are fairly price-sensitive in relation to animal-free milk, and this cuts throughout all international locations.”
In the meantime, youthful shoppers, notably Millennials, appeared extra open to attempting novel dairy options, the researcher mentioned. “We have been trying on the age teams between 20 and 70 years previous,” Banovic instructed us. “What we may see was that these below 35 years of age have been extra more likely to settle for and had a better probability of shopping for merchandise from precision fermentation expertise.”
Whereas European shoppers didn’t seem to charge precision fermentation-derived dairy extremely when it comes to sensory expertise and worth, the expertise’s perceived environmental credentials may assist entrepreneurs, Banovic concluded. “We all know that optimistic associations exist, and these are the advantages that needs to be highlighted,” she mentioned. “For instance, the relation to a decrease carbon footprint that customers are seeing, the environmental and animal welfare advantages, and so forth.”
Sources:
1. Client acceptance of precision fermentation expertise: A cross-cultural research
Authors: Banovic, M., Grunert, Ok. G.
Revealed: Modern Meals Science and Rising Applied sciences 88 (2023) 103435
www.elsevier.com/find/ifset
2. Past sugar: Exploring the affect of well being and naturalness framing on attitudes in direction of merchandise with candy proteins in Europe
Authors: Banovic, M., Grunert, Ok. G.
Revealed: Meals Analysis Worldwide 175 (2024) 113767
www.elsevier.com/find/foodres
