Consumer Preferences for Conventional Meat and Meat Alternatives.

Area of Science:

• Food Science
• Consumer Behavior
• Agricultural Economics

Background:

• Growing consumer interest in sustainable and alternative protein sources.
• Limited understanding of consumer preferences for novel meat alternatives.
• Need to compare consumer acceptance of conventional meat, cultured meat, and plant-based meat.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate consumer attitudes towards different types of canned ham: Handon pork, lab-grown, and plant-based.
• To determine consumer willingness-to-pay (WTP) for each type of meat alternative.
• To assess consumer knowledge and labeling preferences for meat alternatives.

Main Methods:

• Nationwide online survey of 1,000 South Korean consumers.
• Choice experiment design to elicit consumer preferences.
• Random parameter logit analysis to estimate willingness-to-pay.

Main Results:

• Consumers exhibited the highest mean willingness-to-pay for Handon pork canned ham.
• Lab-grown canned ham received the lowest mean willingness-to-pay.
• Consumers demonstrated lower subjective knowledge of meat alternatives and opposed labeling them as 'meat'.

Conclusions:

• Real meat is preferred over lab-grown and plant-based alternatives among South Korean consumers.
• Consumer knowledge regarding meat alternatives is limited, impacting acceptance.
• Clearer labeling strategies are needed, with a majority opposing the term 'meat' for alternatives.