Brussels – “Plant-based “meat”, cricket flour, seaweed, single-cell proteins: innovative foods, whatever the dish, divide Europeans. One in two does not view them positively and therefore prefers traditional dishes, although these choices and attitudes are based largely on instinct and little information. This is what emerges from the Eurobarometer special survey published today (26 October), which highlights a lack of information and scant interest in a topic that nonetheless fuels the European political debate.
Innovative foods are food products or ingredients developed using advanced technologies, including ingredients obtained through fermentation, climate-resilient crops, alternative proteins, products derived from animal cells, and hybrid products. These are all ready-to-use and ready-to-eat food products made from natural ingredients that have, until now, been little or never used, such as cricket flour, authorised by the European Commission for food production and retail.
Well, 51 per cent of Europeans surveyed say they have a negative view, compared with 39 per cent who say they are in favour of innovation on the dinner table. The gap narrows in Italy, where 50 per cent are against, and 41 per cent are in favour.
Against a generally negative backdrop regarding changing eating habits, the availability on the market of fruit and vegetables capable of withstanding adverse weather conditions and extreme weather events seems to be winning over more Europeans, who say they are in favour of consuming this type of climate-resilient produce (50 per cent, compared with 46 per cent who are against). When asked what they think of foods produced through the fermentation of micro-organisms, Europeans’ views differ: 46 per cent would eat them, while 50 per cent would not.
What worries Europeans is the long-term health risk (43 per cent), while in Italy, people are concerned about quality: the main reason for Italian resistance to innovative food is the perception that it is “over-processed” on an industrial scale and therefore “unnatural”.
But behind this scepticism lies the issue of communication and transparency: fewer than three in ten Europeans (27 per cent) say they are “fully informed” on the subject, while over two-thirds of men and women across the EU (69 per cent), although they have heard of it, have not felt the need to find out more. In any case, men and women across Europe want to be informed so they can make an informed choice, and the vast majority of them (85 per cent) are calling for specific labelling for novel foods.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
