Abstract Although two billion people already eat insects in the world and the benefits of edible insects are well known, these ‘green' sources of protein are neither treated as conventional food products nor widely incorporated into Western diets. Using a school-based investigation surveying 161 children, aged 6–15, and 114 of their parents in London, and an online consumer survey with mainly British and French consumers (N = 1,020), this research provides insights into the potential of the insect market in the West. This work supports the idea that incorporating insect food into our diets makes not only environmental but also business sense. A nonnegligible segment of the population surveyed is willing to pay for mealworm minced meat and young children and pre-teens could represent a substantial market segment, as yet unexplored. This analysis points to multiple marketing strategies, such as early exposure, education, reducing the visibility of insect parts, celebrity endorsement, or peer-to-peer marketing, all of which could facilitate the adoption of insect food in the ‘mainstream’ arena, according to the consumer segment being targeted. Generalizations from these results are restricted to an educated and youthful subset of the potential consumer pool and further work remains to understand the patterns of Western consumer acceptance for the range of insect foods.

中文翻译：

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西方世界的昆虫食品：评估新“绿色”市场的潜力

摘要 尽管世界上已经有 20 亿人食用昆虫并且食用昆虫的好处众所周知，但这些“绿色”蛋白质来源既没有被视为常规食品，也没有被广泛纳入西方饮食。通过对伦敦 161 名 6-15 岁儿童和 114 名父母的学校调查，以及主要针对英国和法国消费者（N = 1,020）的在线消费者调查，该研究提供了对昆虫潜力的见解西部市场。这项工作支持这样一种观点，即将昆虫食物纳入我们的饮食不仅具有环境意义，而且具有商业意义。接受调查的人群中有一个不可忽视的部分愿意为粉虫碎肉买单，而幼儿和青少年可能是一个尚未开发的重要市场。该分析指出了多种营销策略，例如早期曝光、教育、降低昆虫部位的知名度、名人代言或点对点营销，所有这些都可以促进昆虫食品在“主流”领域的采用，根据目标消费群体。这些结果的概括仅限于潜在消费者群体中受过教育和年轻的子集，进一步的工作仍有待了解西方消费者对昆虫食品范围的接受模式。