Developing novel foods with insects – to see or not to see

Introduction: Novel insect food with high familiarity to the Danish consumers were developed. Insects were incorporated in a manner that made their sensory properties apparent to the consumers. Three different products were created: ready-to-eat granola, ready-to-heat quiche and ready-to-cook risotto. Both versions with visible and non-visible insects for each product were tested to understand the consumers liking based on insect visibility. Consumers were asked questions regarding the products, food neophobia (1) and demographics. Results: 154 respondents completed the experiment (65 males). The granola with visible meal worm larvae was liked the most of all the products (Mean 7.9 on a 9-point scale). For granola, the visual version was rated higher in overall liking (p=0.012), taste-wise (p=0.005) and taste appropriateness (p=0.032). For quiche the non-visual version was rated higher in overall visual liking (p=0.026) and visual appropriateness (p=0.023). For Risotto the non-visual version was rated higher in overall liking (p=0.041), overall visual liking (p<0.001) and visual appropriateness (p<0.001). Furthermore, highly neophilic respondents consistently scored higher on the overall liking and visual appropriateness of the products than the neophilic and neophobic respondents. Conclusion: The granolas were rated highest in liking. The consumer liking of the visibility of the insects was dependent on the product type. Respondents, who believed that a product was visually appropriate, were more likely to belong in the high overall liking group. The higher neophilic respondents tended to respond more positively to overall liking. Lastly, for the most part, higher visual appropriateness scores could be linked to high overall liking. Acknowledgments: Project invaluable provided funding for this work. Proti-Farm, Netherlands and the Danish Technical Institute delivered buffalo worms and meal-worm larvae. Roberto Flore co-supervised the MSc-thesis and provided insight and guidance regarding preparation and cooking with insects. Ausumgaard, Denmark provided a venue for testing the products on their spring fair.