Chinese consumers’ valuation for prepared plant‐based meat products: Does environmental information matter?

作者：Xue Jiang, Xiujuan Chen, Linhai Wu · 发表于：Journal of Food Science · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1111/1750-3841.17279 · 被引用次数：8 · 研究领域：Organic Food and Agriculture、Agriculture Sustainability and Environmental Impact、Culinary Culture and Tourism

Despite the growing interest in innovative nonanimal protein-prepared foods, knowledge about consumer demand for these newly prepared foods and their potential scope in the market could be improved. This study reports the results of a discrete choice experiment on consumers' (n = 1245) willingness to pay (WTP) for prepared plant-based meat (PPBM) in the context of Chinese food culture. Consumers were randomly assigned to a treated group with additional environmental information about PPBM. The estimation results of the random parameter logit model showed that when environmental information was provided, consumer preferences and WTP for frozen meatballs with mixed meat (beef-based and soy protein-based meat) and PBM (pure soy protein-based meat) significantly increased. However, their preference and WTP for food quality and safety attributes of meatballs decreased. Simultaneously, the availability of information reveals the heterogeneity of preferences. This study found that positive WTP for PPBM was limited to consumers with a low degree of food technology neophobia (FTN) and that consumers with a high degree of FTN may avoid purchasing meatballs made from PBM. In contrast, consumers with a higher time preference (i.e., impatient consumers) were likelier to pay for PPBM meatballs. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: PPBM is especially valuable in developing innovative nonanimal protein-prepared foods, and China has the potential to become the largest PPBM food market. Understanding consum...