Nutritional Cognition,Consumption Behavior And Attitude Toward Edible Insects Among Urban And Rural Residents

With the development of social economy,the diet consumption structure and dietary preferences of Chinese people have undergone an obvious transformation,and main grain consumption decrease,and the consumption of protein-rich foods such as meat,eggs and milk continue to increase.However,as a result,the demand for animal protein continues to rise,increasing the pressure of supply and resources and environment.The concept of big food provides ideas for safeguarding animal protein,and edible insects,as a suitable substitute for high-quality protein supplement,provide a possibility for relieving the pressure of animal protein demand.At present,there are few studies on edible insects,and most of them focus on the nutritional value of edible insects,consumer cognition and other aspects.How is the nutrition cognition of edible insects of Chinese urban and rural residents?What are the attitudes and actual consumption behaviors of urban and rural residents towards edible insects? Whether and to what extent do urban and rural residents’ nutritional cognition of edible insects affect their consumption of edible insects? A series of problems need to be studied.Based on 1400 survey data collected from seven sample provinces in China in April2022,this paper constructs a regression model to investigate the impact of urban and rural residents’ nutritional cognition of edible insects on their consumption behavior,and also investigates the consumption attitudes of consumers who have not consumed silkworm pupae in the past year(2021).Furthermore,the samples were grouped by individual and family characteristics for heterogeneity analysis to explore the difference of the impact of nutritional cognition on the consumption behavior and consumption attitude of respondents with different characteristics.In addition,a series of alternative model analyses validate the robustness of the main results.The results of this study will further enrich the existing literature on nutritional perceptions of edible insect consumption behaviors and attitudes,and provide empirical evidence and decision-making reference for the formulation of policy measures to promote edible insect consumption.The results showed that:(1)Residents in the sample provinces generally had a high nutritional awareness of edible insects.(2)Silkworm pupa has become the source of protein intake for some consumers,but it is less than the source of protein intake such as meat,fish,eggs and milk.(3)Nutritional cognition can promote residents’ consumption behavior and improve their consumption attitude towards silkworm pupa,and the influence varies according to the social and economic characteristics of the interviewees and their families.Based on the above conclusions,in order to further promote the consumption of edible insects by Chinese residents,the following suggestions were put forward:(1)Strengthen the publicity of the nutritional value of edible insects,and provide consumers with positive information about the nutritional value of edible insects,resources and environment price through various information channels,so as to improve the nutritional cognition of edible insects by Chinese residents.(2)In the trading process of edible insects,the advantages of edible insects rich in nutrition and easy for human absorption should be emphasized to offset the constraints of taste,sensory and other factors on consumers.(3)Women,rural residents and other characteristics of edible insects consumption is less affected by nutritional cognition,these residents need to carry out more research to explore measures that can promote edible insects consumption of residents.(4)Establish and improve laws and regulations related to edible insect consumption,and disclose edible insect safety information to consumers,so as to alleviate consumers’ trust barriers to edible insects.