Framework for Understanding Consumer Perceptions and Attitudes to Support Decisions on Cultured Meat: A Theoretical Approach and Future Directions

This paper investigated consumer perceptions and attitudes for decision making in Cultured Meat (CM), driven by the growing interest in innovative food products. The motivation stemmed from the anticipated challenges in consumer acceptance of CM, a novel alternative to traditional meat production. The research objective included to identify key factors influencing consumer behaviour in the context of the novel food product. The Systematic Literature Review methodically explored and synthesised existing research, giving insights to the factors affecting consumer perceptions and attitudes towards decisions on CM. Then, a tailored conceptual framework, the Cultured Meat Attitude and Perception Assessment (CAPA), has been developed to address the identified gaps and limitations in understanding consumer perceptions and attitudes. The results highlighted the complex and multidimensional nature of consumer attitudes, emphasising the role of knowledge (awareness, comprehension, familiarity), perception (disgust, neophobia, curiosity, fear, trust), and external factors (ethical issues, social factors, product attributes, information influence, perceived exclusivity, regulatory considerations) that could be used by decision makers such as food innovators and marketers. The CAPA framework integrated these factors to offer a holistic perspective on consumer behaviour, overcoming the limitations of existing work and offering insights to the decision makers in the industry.