Consumers' dietary patterns have a significant impact on planetary and personal health. To address health and environmental challenges one of the many possible solutions is to substitute meat consumption with alternative protein sources. This systematic review identifies 91 articles with a focus on the drivers of consumer acceptance of five alternative proteins: pulses, algae, insects, plant-based alternative proteins, and cultured meat. This review demonstrates that acceptance of the alternative proteins included here is relatively low (compared to that of meat); acceptance of insects is lowest, followed by acceptance of cultured meat. Pulses and plant-based alternative proteins have the highest acceptance level. In general, the following drivers of acceptance consistently show to be relevant for the acceptance of various alternative proteins: motives of taste and health, familiarity, attitudes, food neophobia, disgust, and social norms. However, there are also differences in relevance between individuals and between alternative proteins. For example, for insects and other novel alternative proteins the drivers of familiarity and affective processes of food neophobia and disgust seem more relevant. As part of gaining full insight in relevant drivers of acceptance, the review also shows an overview of the intervention studies that were included in the 91 articles of the review, providing implications on how consumer acceptance can be increased. The focal areas of the intervention studies included here do not fully correspond with the current knowledge of drivers. To date, intervention studies have mainly focussed on conscious deliberations, whereas familiarity and affective factors have also been shown to be key drivers. The comprehensive overview of the most relevant factors for consumer acceptance of various categories of alternative proteins thus shows large consistencies across bodies of research. Variations can be found in the nuances showing different priorities of drivers for different proteins and different segments, showing the relevance of being context and person specific for future research.

There is a growing awareness that fostering the transition toward plant-based diets with reduced meat consumption levels is essential to alleviating the detrimental impacts of the food system on the planet and to improving human health and animal welfare. The reduction in average meat intake may be reached via many possible ways, one possibility being the increased consumption of plant-based meat alternatives (PBMAs). For this reason, in recent years, hundreds of products have been launched on the market with sensory attributes (i.e., taste, texture, appearance, and smell) similar to their animal counterparts; however, these products have often a long list of ingredients and their nutritional values are very different from animal meat. The present review aims to highlight the main opportunities and challenges related to the production and consumption of PBMAs through an interdisciplinary approach. Aspects related to the production technology, nutritional profiles, potential impacts on health and the environment, and the current market and consumer acceptance of PBMAs are discussed. Focusing on the growing literature on this topic, this review will also highlight research gaps related to PBMAs that should be considered in the future, possibly through the collaboration of different stakeholders that can support the transition toward sustainable plant-based diets.

A large number of consumer studies on edible insects in Western countries have been published in 2019. A total of 33 studies are brought together in this article that provides an overview of current findings and signals further developments in today’s scholarly attention in the field of human consumption of insects. To outline this body of knowledge, this literature review presents established threads of research about: (1) Westerners’ unfamiliarity with; and (2) fear of eating insects; or (3) consumer reactions to processed or unprocessed insect food products. In addition, new avenues of study in entomophagy research are identified. Present-day studies open up new vistas by: (1) taking different consumer segments and food styles into account; (2) starting to examine the role of emotions and affective factors; and (3) employing a research design that includes multiple insect food products to explore consumer responses to various product options. Studies from 2019 also show that sustainability and circularity gains of insects are in their nascent stage as far as consumer studies are concerned.

Meat is critical with respect to sustainability because meat products are among the most energy-intensive and ecologically burdensome foods. Empirical studies of the meat-consumption frequency of Dutch consumers show that, apart from meat-avoiders and meat-eaters, many people are meat-reducers that eat no meat at least one day per week. Meat-consumption frequencies provide empirical evidence for different modes of “flexitarianism,” including light, medium, and heavy flexitarians. In particular, the existence of heavy flexitarians suggests that the customary position of meat and other animal-based dietary products in the food hierarchy is not inviolable. To improve our understanding of meat reduction, cluster analysis adds information about differences across flexitarians. Given the enormous environmental impact of animal-protein consumption and the apparent sympathy of consumers for meat reduction, it is surprising that politicians and policy makers demonstrate little, if any, interest in strategies to reduce meat consumption and to encourage more sustainable eating practices.