Critical elements for consumer acceptance of Eco-feed concepts

Samenvatting

The PPP RENEW (side- and residual streams for Eco-feed application in the Netherlands, with specific attention for the design of circular food systems and consumer acceptance) was launched in February 2021. The project is a public privatepartnership, and its aim is to design and valorise Eco-feed concepts. Eco-feed is conceptualized as a circular feed product for non-ruminant animals, based on side- and residual streams collected from retail and foodservice outlets. In this project, we consider only Eco-feed for pigs and poultry (layers and broilers). PPP RENEW focuses on 3 main research questions (RQs): RQ.1) Which conditions are necessary to create a positive business case for Eco-Feed in the Netherlands, from economic, environmental and animal welfare point of view? RQ.2) Which conditions are necessary to create consumer and food value chain acceptance of Eco-feed products? RQ.3) Which scenarios contribute to the development of Eco-feed concepts? This report presents the findings on task 2.1 (related to RQ.2) and addresses elements that influence consumer acceptance (attitude and behaviour) and which are critical for accepting products for human consumption that are based on Eco-fed pigs and chicken. A literature review has been performed to create an analytical framework to explainacceptance, and four focus group discussions were organised to collect first insights from consumers on the topic.Our findings suggest that elements including personal characteristics, social context, physical context, the product itself, and the production system all matter. However, it seems that consumers are not (yet) very aware of what livestock animals eat, and how feed is being produced. Furthermore, there seem to be no clear difference between more or lesss ustainability-oriented consumers with regards to their opinion on Eco-feed concepts.