Consumer acceptance of novel proteins like insect protein and cultivated meat depends primarily on trust in the food system, with 38% of consumers who trust food systems open to innovation compared to just 6% with low trust. Building partnerships with established brands and focusing on education about immediate benefits like taste and health, rather than complex production methods, helps overcome skepticism toward these emerging food technologies.
- A 2025 European survey found 31% of consumers are open to innovative food products, but acceptance of novel proteins depends heavily on trust in companies, regulators and retailers.
- Trust creates a 32-percentage-point gap in innovation acceptance: 38% of consumers with high food system trust embrace new products versus only 6% with low trust.
- Age matters significantly — nearly 40% of consumers ages 18-34 embrace new food products compared to fewer than 20% of those 55 and older.
- Successful strategies include partnering with established trusted brands (like Bond Pet Foods with Hill's Pet Nutrition) and communicating immediate benefits like taste and health rather than complex production methods.
- Consumer education and visible human expertise paired with brand credibility are essential for overcoming skepticism in an environment of low trust and high uncertainty.
A survey of nearly 20,000 European consumers conducted in 2025 showed 31% are open to innovative food products, up slightly from 28% in 2024; but when it comes to unfamiliar products and technologies — consider insect protein, cultivated meat, precision fermentation as a few examples — their openness depends greatly on how much the consumers trust the company or brand, in addition to regulators and retailers. In other words, the entire food system.
This is not a surprise, and it’s also showing up in how readily pet owners are accepting alternative proteins like insects, cultivated meat or fermentation derivations. In most of those cases, acceptance is still low.
It doesn’t help purveyors of these new proteins that in uncertain times like the present, rife with geopolitical disruptions, financial insecurity and concerns over technologies like AI and their accompanying data centers, trust becomes even rarer and more difficult to earn or keep.
New technologies vs. trust
In the European survey about human food products, conducted by EIT Food and reported in August 2026 by Joshua Poole on FoodIngredientsFirst.com, a gap between interest in innovation and acceptance on the plate became evident. Poole described the gap as “persistent.”
“Trust appears to be central to that divide,” he wrote. “Among consumers who trust the food system, 38% say they are open to innovation. That falls to just 6% among those with low trust.
“Technologies viewed as more disruptive can run up against cultural, personal or religious values, while unfamiliarity and reactions such as disgust can quickly dampen interest,” Poole continued, drawing on the survey results. Insect protein comes to mind in terms of disgust, the so-called yuck factor.
The EIT Food survey also indicated age as a dividing line. “Nearly two in five consumers ages 18 to 34 say they are open to new food products, compared with fewer than one in five of those ages 55 and older,” Poole wrote.
Again, that’s no surprise, and we’ve seen it mirrored in younger pet owners saying they’re willing to try, even pay more, for certain types of pet foods or their attributes, such as sustainability. (Of course, willingness is not the same as an actual commitment to buy.)
Consumer education, as always, is essential
In a Petfood Forum 2022 presentation, Rich Kelleman, CEO of Bond Pet Foods, which uses precision fermentation to create “brewed” pet food proteins, argued that all new technologies and concepts start out facing low awareness, understanding and willingness to try. He gave the Post-It note as an example, sharing consumer feedback on the novel product when it debuted: “I don’t see how these little notes could be useful. People already have paper and pens for jotting down reminders.”
And also microwave ovens, about which one consumer said at the time of their introduction: “I wouldn’t trust a machine to cook food so quickly. There are likely health risks associated with this rapid cooking process.”
Kelleman had a point, but the acceptance challenge becomes even more daunting when consumer trust is low and anxiety is high, like now.
One way around that is to collaborate with an established, well-trusted brand — which is exactly what Kelleman and Bond did by entering a partnership with Hill’s Pet Nutrition to develop alternative proteins using Bond’s technology. Similarly, BeneMeat, a Czech company offering technology to produce cultivated protein, partnered earlier this year with Forza10, an established pet food brand out of Italy (part of Nasta Pet Food).
In both cases, consumer education has been essential and will always be. Poole, in his article about novel human food technologies, also stressed education’s importance, along with a different type of communication, based on EIT Food’s survey results.
“Rather than leading with complex explanations of how a product is made, EIT Food recommends connecting innovation with more immediate benefits, including taste, health, pleasure and relevance,” Poole wrote. “Familiarity may prove especially important. A novel ingredient that fits easily into recognizable products, eating occasions and cultural expectations could have an easier route to acceptance than technology presented primarily for its scientific novelty.”
Consumers reclaiming agency
That advice dovetails with one of the three food and drink predictions for 2027 from market research firm Mintel, “authority shifts.” The basis for this, explained in a webinar, speaks again to consumer trust (or the lack thereof): Consumers are reclaiming their own agency. Facing mounting pressures and uncertainty about whom to trust, they’re setting goals, seeking specific outcomes and building their own ecosystems of products, services and technologies, Mintel experts said.
The “shift” part of the prediction involves trust moving to people and sources consumers can identify with. That can include brands, especially if they offer credible experts and evidence in the current environment of information overload and AI fragmentation of where people learn about products. Mintel predicts successful brands will expand who speaks for them to include operators, chefs, farmers and scientists, and will pair AI with visible human expertise.
