EU consumer awareness of food safety and healthy diets: Are there synergies to benefit a sustainable protein transition?

Joop de Boer*, Harry Aiking

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

This paper aims to gain more insight into potential synergies between food safety and healthy diets with a sustainable protein transition (i.e., reducing protein over-consumption and replacing animal protein with plant protein) in the EU. The paper is based on a systematic analysis of the survey on food safety, organized by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) as part of Eurobarometer wave 97.2 (Spring 2022). Consumers responded somewhat differently to the survey items on chemical contaminants in food than to those on biological hazards in food, plant health and animal health and welfare. They were somewhat more aware of and concerned about the former than the latter. They also had different ideas on the most important healthy diet items. Cluster analysis identified five clusters who, inter alia, focused on conventional options (e.g., eating fewer calories) or the protein replacement options. Multilevel logistic regression analysis showed that food safety awareness and concern variables, explicitly including farm animal welfare, were somewhat stronger associated with the protein replacement cluster than with the conventional cluster. Hence, synergies between food safety and healthy diet issues may stimulate the replacement (not reduction) aspects of a sustainable protein transition. The Discussion suggests that further research should investigate how improving the quality of a week menu with a high diversity of protein sources can help to promote the reduction of over-consumption.

Original languageEnglish
Article number104981
Pages (from-to)1-8
Number of pages8
JournalFood Quality and Preference
Volume111
Early online date25 Aug 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
It should be mentioned that the fieldwork of this study required a lot of effort and commitment from the organizers, the fieldworkers, and the participants, which we acknowledge with gratitude. The paper does not involve new human participants. The data were collected by Kantar in all Member States of the EU at the request of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and are publicly available. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. EFSA. (2022a). Eurobarometer on Food & Safety 2022 - Dataset. Brussels: European Food Safety Authority, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7112932.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors

Funding

It should be mentioned that the fieldwork of this study required a lot of effort and commitment from the organizers, the fieldworkers, and the participants, which we acknowledge with gratitude. The paper does not involve new human participants. The data were collected by Kantar in all Member States of the EU at the request of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and are publicly available. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. EFSA. (2022a). Eurobarometer on Food & Safety 2022 - Dataset. Brussels: European Food Safety Authority, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7112932.

Keywords

  • Animal protein replacement
  • Consumer awareness and concern
  • Farm animal welfare
  • Food safety

VU Research Profile

  • Science for Sustainability

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