Development and validation of a cultured meat neophobia scale: Industry implications for South Africa

Interest in evaluating cultured meat neophobia is growing as the development of this product continues to progress. As the available evaluation tools have imprecise wording and fall short of providing critical information, this study endeavoured to develop a neophobia scale that captured product-specific nuances of cultured meat. The developed scale was tested using data collected in South Africa. Factor and correlation analyses were conducted to determine the dominant consumer concerns and the groups in society that would face the greatest psychological hinderances to adopting of cultured meat. The study's findings show generally low neophobia in the South African market. Negative sentiment was dominated by meat quality concerns while health, food safety, social and cultural concerns, which normally form stronger objections to food acceptance, were low. The study predicts that market penetration would be hardest among older consumers, due to their relatively higher neophobia. However, if marketing efforts are targeted at addressing consumers’ social concerns, marginal increases in acceptance may be experienced among meat-eaters, people reducing their meat consumption, household heads and consumers from high-income provinces. The study concludes that collaboration between the public and private sectors in the provision of legislation guiding food safety and the setting of quality standards will be key to addressing consumer concerns in the evolving protein supply market.