Consumer Acceptance of Edible Insects for Non-Meat Protein in Western Kenya

The objective of this paper is twofold. First, the authors aim to assess acceptance of edible insects for food and as an alternative to conventional meat. Second, they employ a binary logistic regression modelling approach to determine the factors that influence consumer acceptance. The study exploits data from a consumer survey from western Kenya (N = 234) conducted in October 2015. More than three quarters of the respondents accepted edible insects for food and as a possible alternative to meat. The study adopts a robust framework that captures a complex factor-evaluation process that consumers simultaneously goes through in order to accept or reject new food products when they become available. Consistent with this framework, the choice of edible insects for food was driven by many motives, including ones related to familiarity, convenience, social and environmental responsibility, economic incentives and barriers, and by factors related to one’s own risk-attitude and altruistic concerns for the well-being of other value-chain actors. These results present great implications to policies targeting dietary interventions and the prospects of addressing environmental challenges through the household food choice.