Shaping future diets: Examining capabilities, opportunities and motivations to increase acceptance of alternative proteins in families

Shaping future diets: Examining capabilities, opportunities and motivations to increase acceptance of alternative proteins in families

Food Quality and Preference

10.1016/j.foodqual.2025.105845

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2025.105845

Siti Amelia Juraimi, Florence Sheen, Anna Fogel, Mary F.-F. Chong, Benjamin P.C. Smith, Aimee E. Pink

plant-based meat, cultivated meat, insect proteins, consumer perceptions, consumer behaviours

21 December 2025

Juraimi, S. A., Sheen, F., Fogel, A., Chong, M. F.-F., Smith, B. P. C., & Pink, A. E. (2025). Shaping future diets: Examining capabilities, opportunities and motivations to increase acceptance of alternative proteins in families. Food Quality and Preference, 105845. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2025.105845

Children have the potential to drive the adoption of alternative proteins (AP), yet studies exploring children and parents’ perceptions, using developed frameworks such as the Capability, Opportunity and Motivations model of Behaviour (COM-B) are limited. Through an online questionnaire, we aimed to understand children and parents’ awareness and consumption of plant-based meat, cultivated meat and insect proteins in Singapore and their willingness to try (WTT) and willingness to regularly consume (WTC). We also examined which COM-B domains predicted WTT and WTC as well as factors that predicted parent’s willingness to let their child try (LCT) and willingness to let their child regularly consume (LCC). Children (N=266; M=11.47-years-old) and parents (N=269; M=42.34-years-old) were most familiar with and reported greatest previous consumption of plant-based meats, compared to the other AP types. Among children, motivation was a significant predictor of WTT (ps≤.015), and capability was a significant predictor of WTC (ps≤.019) for all AP. For parents, motivation was a significant predictor of WTT and WTC for all types (except WTT plant based and WTC cultivated meat; ps≤.003) and capability significantly predicted WTC cultivated meat and plant-based meat (ps ≤.030). Opportunity was not a significant predictor for either WTT or WTC for children and parents. AP adding value to the child’s diet were significant predictors of LCT and LCC (ps≤.004). Our results help to uncover the complex nature of consumer views of AP, and we make recommendation of interventions that could be developed.

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

This research / project is supported by the National Research Foundation, A*STAR - Singapore Food Story R&D Programme
Grant Reference no. : W22W3D0009

https://oar.a-star.edu.sg/communities-collections/articles/22676

0950-3293

Institute of High Performance Computing