Food Neophobia or Distrust of Novelties? Exploring Consumers’ Attitudes toward GMOs, Insects and Cultured Meat

The food industry is constantly challenged to find new ideas to satisfy the increasingly specific consumer demand. However, innovative food products do not always become part of consumption habits or create a market. One of the major sources of resistance to novelty lies in the attitude of the consumer, who in many cases may be suspicious or hostile as a result of specific ideologies, overly attached to tradition, or affected by neophobia. This paper analyzes the construct of food neophobia (the “unwillingness to try new foods”) in its phenomenology and its actual power to explain hostility to innovation in the agri-food sector. The limits of the concept, which is not always sufficient to shed light on the many reasons that could underlie the rejection of certain foods, will also be discussed. In addition, we review the recent literature on Europeans’ attitude toward novel foods and innovation including Genetically modified organisms (GMOs), cultivated meat and insects as food. This literature reveals a number of paradoxes in consumers’ behavior, and in the many complex conditions underpinning the success of innovation in food production. These conditions can only be understood by reconstructing the meanings consumers assign to food, and are often embedded in larger social and political frameworks.