Researchers from Aarhus University’s MAPP Centre surveyed consumers from four European countries to gauge their perceptions of animal-free dairy – with a particular focus on precision fermentation-derived products – and determine how and why attitudes differed across different consumer groups.
Shoppers from the UK, France, Denmark, and Germany were asked about their knowledge of the technology and told how it can be leveraged to create microbially-synthesized milk proteins without involving a live animal. The researchers then sought to evaluate the consumers’ perceptions on product naturalness, taste and sensory experience, sustainability, affordability, and other associations. A range of plant-based, hybrid, and precision fermentation dairy alternatives were compared, along with conventional dairy.
“We wanted to answer three questions,” said one of the authors, associate professor Marija Banovic who works at the Department of Management at the MAPP Centre. “If we have these products on the market, would they stand out? So we compared them to other dairy alternatives, such as plant-based.
“The second question we wanted to address was what are the attributes that resonate with the consumer – that would ‘catch their eye’ and actually make them accept this product?
“And the final question was, if accepted, will this acceptance continue over time?”
While the paper is yet to be published in full, Banovic presented some of the key findings during January’s precision fermentation of milk proteins conference organized by the Food & Bio Cluster Denmark and held in Copenhagen.
Expanding on previous research published by herself and university professor Klaus G. Grunert on consumer attitudes on health and naturalness1 and a separate consumer study on the consumer acceptance of precision fermentation technology2, this research assesses in more depth the perceptual barriers to adopting precision fermentation-derived dairy in Europe.
While dairy alternatives that contain precision fermentation-derived milk proteins are sold in several markets – notably, the US – such food products aren’t available in Europe. This is in large part due to EU regulation that requires manufacturers to submit a Novel Food dossier to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in order to obtain approval – a process that’s yet to yield a positive outcome, with the first-ever application, from US-based Perfect Day, dating back to 2022.
Even though such products aren’t available to European consumers yet, the researchers argued that knowledge of early consumer perceptions could help overcome barriers to future adoption.
From ‘artificial’ to ‘innovative’
Consumers were asked about their top associations when confronted with information about precision fermentation technology. The responses were mixed – Danish consumers leaned towards negative associations, with the most frequently used words being ‘artificial,’ ‘smart,’ and ‘future’. In the UK, ‘interesting’, ‘friendly’ and ‘artificial’ were the top associations; in France – ‘microbes’, ‘fermentation’ and ‘health’, and in Germany, these were ‘environmentally friendly’, ‘animal,’ and ‘microbes’.
Notably,