The Influence of Various Information About Insect Content and Its Advantages on the Acceptance of Foods Containing Insects

ABSTRACT Information about the content of food products affects the potential consumers’ willingness to purchase certain foodstuffs and include them in their diet. The presentation and scope of information are essential in the case of marketing specific products such as insect-based foods. The purpose of our study was to investigate the influence of information about a product’s advantages, coupled with verbal and visual information provided on the packaging, on the participants’ assessment of food containing insects. The participants (N = 659) were informed about the environmental or health benefits of ingesting insects. They were subsequently presented with a picture of a food product with different types of information about the insect content and asked to evaluate the product. The results suggest that providing images of insects on the packaging results in a lower assessment of the food containing insects. A brief presentation of the advantages of entomophagy has no impact on insect-based food assessment.