IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i17p7993-d1742529.html

Consumer Trust in Emerging Food Technologies: A Comparative Analysis of Croatia and India

Author

Listed:
  • Marko Šostar

    (Faculty of Tourism and Rural Development in Pozega, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, 17, Vukovarska Street, 34000 Požega, Croatia)

  • Jaiji Joy

    (School of Industrial Fisheries in Cochin, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kochi 682022, Kerala, India)

  • Hareesh N. Ramanathan

    (School of Industrial Fisheries in Cochin, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kochi 682022, Kerala, India)

Abstract

Consumer trust plays a critical role in the successful adoption of emerging food technologies. This study investigates how trust in five key food technologies—genetically modified organisms (GMO), 3D-printed food, lab-grown meat, nanotechnology, and functional foods—varies across two culturally distinct countries: Croatia and India. Utilizing a quantitative approach with responses from 538 participants, the research explores how demographic factors such as country of residence, gender, and urban-rural setting influence consumer attitudes. Statistical analysis was conducted using MANOVA and one-way ANOVA to test seven hypotheses regarding trust levels. The results revealed significant cross-national differences, with Indian consumers expressing higher trust across all technologies studied. In contrast, variables such as gender and place of residence showed limited or context-dependent influence. These findings underscore the importance of cultural context in shaping consumer trust and point to the need for targeted communication and policy strategies in promoting food innovation. The study contributes to the growing body of research on food technology adoption by emphasizing trust as a culturally embedded and demographically nuanced phenomenon.

Suggested Citation

  • Marko Šostar & Jaiji Joy & Hareesh N. Ramanathan, 2025. "Consumer Trust in Emerging Food Technologies: A Comparative Analysis of Croatia and India," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-30, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:17:p:7993-:d:1742529
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/17/7993/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/17/7993/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chloe Crawshaw & Jared Piazza, 2023. "Livestock Farmers’ Attitudes towards Alternative Proteins," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-18, June.
    2. Longji Hu & Rongjin Liu & Wei Zhang & Tian Zhang, 2020. "The Effects of Epistemic Trust and Social Trust on Public Acceptance of Genetically Modified Food: An Empirical Study from China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(20), pages 1-20, October.
    3. Hsiao-Ping Chang & Chun-Chieh Ma & Han-Shen Chen, 2019. "Climate Change and Consumer’s Attitude toward Insect Food," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-17, May.
    4. Ivy Caixia Gan & Denise Maria Conroy, 2024. "Control or Losing Control: Consumer Perceptions of Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) Based on Focus Group Findings," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(12), pages 1-15, June.
    5. Marko Šostar & Vladimir Ristanović, 2024. "Evaluating Consumer Preferences for Sustainable Products: A Comparative Study Across Five Countries," World, MDPI, vol. 5(4), pages 1-19, December.
    6. Asioli, Daniele & Fuentes-Pila, Joaquìn & Alarcón, Silverio & Han, Jia & Liu, Jingjing & Hocquette, Jean-Francois & Nayga, Rodolfo M., 2022. "Consumers’ valuation of cultured beef Burger: A Multi-Country investigation using choice experiments," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    7. Marko Šostar & Vladimir Ristanović, 2023. "Assessment of Influencing Factors on Consumer Behavior Using the AHP Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-24, June.
    8. Maria Angela Perito & Silvia Coderoni & Carlo Russo, 2020. "Consumer Attitudes towards Local and Organic Food with Upcycled Ingredients: An Italian Case Study for Olive Leaves," Post-Print hal-04554343, HAL.
    9. Marko Šostar & Vladimir Ristanović, 2023. "An Assessment of the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Consumer Behavior Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-31, October.
    10. Wei Fu & Hongping Zhang & Jeremy E. Whaley & Youn-Kyung Kim, 2023. "Do Consumers Perceive Cultivated Meat as a Sustainable Substitute to Conventional Meat? Assessing the Facilitators and Inhibitors of Cultivated Meat Acceptance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-16, July.
    11. Nathalie C M Rolland & C Rob Markus & Mark J Post, 2020. "The effect of information content on acceptance of cultured meat in a tasting context," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(4), pages 1-17, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marko Šostar & Vladimir Ristanović, 2024. "Evaluating Consumer Preferences for Sustainable Products: A Comparative Study Across Five Countries," World, MDPI, vol. 5(4), pages 1-19, December.
    2. Marko Å ostar & Ines Å koko, 2024. "Unpacking the Complexities of Energy Renovation Programs for Family Houses: Case Study of Croatia," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 14(4), pages 12-25, July.
    3. Vladimir Ristanović & Dinko Primorac & Barbara Dorić, 2024. "The Importance of Green Investments in Developed Economies—MCDM Models for Achieving Adequate Green Investments," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(15), pages 1-15, July.
    4. Yan Ren & Haonan Zhang & Lile Wu & Kai Zhang & Zutian Cheng & Ketao Sun & Yuan Sun & Leiming Hu, 2025. "Research on the Health Evaluation of a Pump Turbine in Smoothing Output Volatility of the Hybrid System Under a High Proportion of Wind and Photovoltaic Power Connection," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(5), pages 1-30, March.
    5. Kajul Bharti & Richa Agarwal, 2026. "Consumers adoption of healthy lifestyle: Understanding the influence of upcycling drivers on LOHAS consumer behavior," Journal of Financial Services Marketing, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 31(1), pages 1-19, March.
    6. Maria Giovina Pasca & Gabriella Arcese, 2025. "Sustainability and Quality of Cultured Meat: Consumer Perceptions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(4), pages 1-18, February.
    7. Macht, Janine & Klink-Lehmann, Jeanette & Hartmann, Monika, 2023. "Don't forget the locals: Understanding citizens' acceptance of bio-based technologies," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    8. Shahida Anusha Siddiqui & Zarnab Asif & Misbah Murid & Ito Fernando & Danung Nur Adli & Andrey Vladimirovich Blinov & Alexey Borisovich Golik & Widya Satya Nugraha & Salam A. Ibrahim & Seid Mahdi Jafa, 2022. "Consumer Social and Psychological Factors Influencing the Use of Genetically Modified Foods—A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-22, November.
    9. Romain Espinosa & Nicolas Treich, 2023. "Eliciting Non-hypothetical Willingness-to-pay for Novel Products: An Application to Cultured Meat," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 85(3), pages 673-706, August.
    10. Asioli, Daniele & Fuentes-Pila, Joaquìn & Alarcón, Silverio & Han, Jia & Liu, Jingjing & Hocquette, Jean-Francois & Nayga, Rodolfo M., 2022. "Consumers’ valuation of cultured beef Burger: A Multi-Country investigation using choice experiments," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    11. Leonore Lewisch & Petra Riefler, 2023. "Cultured meat acceptance for global food security: a systematic literature review and future research directions," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 11(1), pages 1-21, December.
    12. Nick Lin-Hi & Marlene Reimer & Katharina Schäfer & Johanna Böttcher, 2023. "Consumer acceptance of cultured meat: an empirical analysis of the role of organizational factors," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 93(4), pages 707-746, May.
    13. Alfredo J. Escribano & Maria Belen Peña & Carlos Díaz-Caro & Ahmed Elghannam & Eva Crespo-Cebada & Francisco J. Mesías, 2021. "Stated Preferences for Plant-Based and Cultured Meat: A Choice Experiment Study of Spanish Consumers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-21, July.
    14. Nicolas Treich, 2021. "Cultured Meat: Promises and Challenges," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 79(1), pages 33-61, May.
    15. Sara Arphorn & Aniruth Manothum & Kotchakorn Santiwung & Kanograt Pangunta & Kunio Hara & Tomohiro Ishimaru, 2021. "Working Conditions and Urinalysis Dipstick Testing among Female Rice Farmers: A Preliminary Cross-Sectional Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(17), pages 1-10, August.
    16. Vincent A. Rabl & Frédéric Basso, 2021. "When Bad Becomes Worse: Unethical Corporate Behavior May Hamper Consumer Acceptance of Cultured Meat," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-18, June.
    17. Tsu-Ming Yeh & Hsiao-Yuan Lu & Fan-Yun Pai, 2025. "Applying Multi-criteria Decision Analysis Methods to Explore the Key Factors in Using Interactive Intelligent Health Promotion Equipment," SAGE Open, , vol. 15(1), pages 21582440251, March.
    18. Yuan, Rao & Asioli, Daniele & Jin, Shaosheng & Nayga, Rodolfo M., 2021. "Consumers’ Valuation for Cultured Chicken Meat: A Multi-city Choice Experiment in China," 2021 Annual Meeting, August 1-3, Austin, Texas 313957, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    19. Sigrid Kusch-Brandt, 2020. "Towards More Sustainable Food Systems—14 Lessons Learned," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-8, June.
    20. Karolina Szulc, 2023. "Edible Insects: A Study of the Availability of Insect-Based Food in Poland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-15, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:17:p:7993-:d:1742529. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.