H. Dagevos

• PhD
• Senior Researcher at Wageningen University & Research

Consumer wishes have to be translated into product characteristics to implement consumer-oriented product development. Before this step can be made, insight in food-related behavior and perception of consumers is necessary to make the right, useful, and successful translation. Food choice behavior and consumers' perception are studied in many disci...

Social norm perceptions are implicit standards describing what is typically done or seen as acceptable and have shown to be important both in sustaining meat consumption as well as facilitating meat reduction. Norm perceptions depend on individual differences and the contexts (e.g., supermarket, restaurant). Yet, evidence how norm perceptions diffe...

We are living in a flexitarian age, in which reduced meat eating and vegetarianism are normalising, while simultaneously meat eating is still the norm in Dutch society. A resulting individualisation of diets begs the question whether and how omnivores and veg*ns living together maintain commensality. Based on interviews with 119 young people living...

Increasing consumer adoption of upcycled food products contributes to making the food system more resource efficient and to transitioning towards a circular economy. Yet, it is unclear how upcycled food can best be communicated towards consumers so that it signals something positive about consumers and make consumers more inclined to purchase upcyc...

There is a growing awareness that fostering the transition toward plant-based diets with reduced meat consumption levels is essential to alleviating the detrimental impacts of the food system on the planet and to improving human health and animal welfare. The reduction in average meat intake may be reached via many possible ways, one possibility be...

In the broader context of drawing sociological attention to the theme of consumption in general and food consumption in particular, and against the more specific background of the increasingly contested meat production and consumption, this article provides an overview of (reductions in) meat consumption in the Netherlands and Belgium with a focus...

Shifting our eating patterns toward less animal-based and more plant-based diets is urgently needed to counter climate change, address public health issues, and protect animal welfare. Although most consumers agree that these are important topics, many consumers are not particularly willing to decrease the meat intensity of their diets. In supporti...

Insect production is recently linked to circular economy’ principles. The idea of circularity as a possible asset in consumer acceptance and adoption of eating insects, however, is understudied as yet. This paper is the first exploratory study of consumers’ sympathy for circularity as a distinctive feature of insects as food and feed to their accep...

Developing alternative protein products—based on protein sources other than regular meat—is a possible pathway to counter environmental and health burdens. However, alternative proteins are not always accepted by consumers, and more research is needed to support a shift to more alternative proteins. Prior studies have mainly focused on individual d...

In recent years, the use of insects as food and feed has gained widespread attention from industry, policy makers, the scientific community, and the general public globally. This chapter is devoted to providing insights on the current state-of-the-art around edible insects and the interlinkages among market, legislation and consumer acceptance. Fut...

Against the backdrop of meat production and consumption being increasingly contested, this paper presents a narrative descriptive review of (reductions in) meat consumption in the Netherlands and Belgium with a focus on trends during the period 2010-2020. Based on household panel purchasing data and supply balance sheet data as proxies, our analysi...

Restaurants are characterized by high levels of meat being consumed in this out-of-home setting, while plant-based meat alternatives remain a niche product, thus preserving a high environmental impact of food consumption. We tested whether subtly re-designing the restaurant menu, so that plant-based meat alternatives were perceived as the default t...

Food consumption has a significant environmental impact which can be alleviated when consumer adoption of plant-based food innovations is increased. Attempts to increase adoption are often tailored to instrumental product attributes that consumers find important, but our studies show this is not necessarily a prerequisite. The current work aims to...

To support the transition to a more plant-based diet, it is necessary to better understand flexitarians, i.e., individuals who curtail their meat intake by abstaining from eating meat occasionally without fully abandoning meat. Much of the research about eating (less) meat thus far has focused on motivations. However, a dietary shift toward less me...

Public acceptance of industrial activities to implement bioenergy technologies is not self-evident. Little is known about how public acceptance of such industrial activities can be increased, though public acceptance is critical to make the transition towards renewable energy. In the current study, we use a corporate social responsibility framework...

The consumption of large amounts of meat is associated with a high environmental burden and a negative impact on human health. A reduction in meat consumption in Western diets is needed. Consumers differ in their attitudes, norms and behaviours related to meat. The aim of the current study is to improve our understanding of meat consumption and red...

Transitions in consumer diets towards a more ‘meat-less’ diet are stated to result in various health and environmental benefits. Consumption of alternative proteins provides one of the alternatives towards more meat-less diets. Alternative proteins receive a lot of attention, however it is unclear whether consumer acceptance is changing over time....

Background Much scientific evidence has been found about positive effects of lowering meat consumption on the environment, human health and animal welfare. Nevertheless, particularly in developing economies demand for meat is rising whereas in high-income countries meat intake remains at high levels. Although many of today's Western consumers are u...

Although it is not clear yet what a full-grown circular economy (CE) is going to look like, it is clear that the challenges of transitioning to a CE are both impressive and urgent. The Dutch government has expressed the ambition to establish a CE in the Netherlands in 2050. In the wake of this, the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Qua...

Consumers’ dietary patterns have a significant impact on planetary and personal health. To address health and environmental challenges one of the many possible solutions is to substitute meat consumption with alternative protein sources. This systematic review identifies 91 articles with a focus on the drivers of consumer acceptance of five alterna...

A large number of consumer studies on edible insects in Western countries have been published in 2019. A total of 33 studies are brought together in this article that provides an overview of current findings and signals further developments in today’s scholarly attention in the field of human consumption of insects. To outline this body of knowledg...

This paper explores the concept of prosumption in the world of food. Prosumption is a combination of production and consumption: food prosumers are people who actively produce food for self‐consumption. Besides reflecting on sociological conceptualisations of prosumption, this exploratory study uses an online survey (N=835) and semi‐structured inte...

Consumer involvement plays a major role in the circular economy (CE), which requires a new and more active role of consumers. However, consumer awareness of and interest and involvement in the CE is low. Therefore, we aimed to find the starting points for consumer involvement in activities that promote a CE by exploring consumers’ general perceptio...

Seaweeds are seen as important future feedstock for Europe, providing biomass for food, feed, and other applications. Seaweeds can contribute to a circular food system a protein transition and bio-based economy. Europe is a minor player in the world market dominated by the Asian producers and processors. According to the FAO, total production of aq...

This chapter provides an overview of developments in the Netherlands on new meat alternatives with a focus on plant-based meat substitutes and lab-grown meat. It devotes attention to both the supply side of the market (business activity) and the demand side (consumer appetite). The first concerns developments in the meat substitutes' innovation sys...

Society increasingly expresses concerns about the meat-centred food system, there is an increasing choice of plant-based meat substitutes and a growing amount of food consumers abstain from eating meat for several days per week (i.e., flexitarianism). However, consumers differ in their engagement regarding meat consumption moderation, leading to di...

A shift towards more sustainable consumer diets is urgently needed. Dietary guidelines state that changes towards less animal-based and more plant-based diets are beneficial in terms of sustainability and, in addition, will have a positive effect on public health. Communication on these guidelines should be most effective when tailored to the motiv...

Understanding consumer food choices is crucial to stimulate sustainable food consumption. Food choice motives are shown to be relevant in understanding consumer food choices. However, there is a focus on product motives, such as price and taste, whereas process motives (i.e. environmental welfare) are understudied. The current study aims to add to...

Even when individuals are aware of long-term health effects of their diet, and form healthy intentions, they often engage in relatively unhealthy snacking habits. Some individuals fall back on unhealthy habits more easily than others. We aim to explore whether time perspective can explain why some individuals are more prone to rely on habits and ot...

This study explores people's perceptions (i.e., positive and negative associations, mixed feelings) regarding the concept of 'bio-based' in general and specific bio-based products. This exploratory study is one of the first consumer studies in the field of bio-based research. Three focus group discussions were organized in the Czech Republic, Denma...

In order to address sustainability problems in the food domain, food consumption needs to be taken into account. The present paper empirically explores different types of sustainable food behaviors. A distinction between sustainable product choices and curtailment behavior has been investigated empirically and predictors of the two types of behavio...

Broad scholarly consensus exists nowadays that high meat consumption is particularly critical from an ecological perspective. Traditionally, technological progress and efficiency innovations in food supply processes are identified as key to solving food sustainability problems. However, it is increasingly recognised that technological innovation an...

Despite a worldwide trend of expanding appetite for meat, scrutiny reveals that high levels of absolute meat consumption and high percentages of flexitarian consumers, who abstain from eating meat regularly, exist simultaneously. This article briefly examines this paradoxical combination of flexitarianism among Dutch food consumers in times of a do...

Purpose – This paper seeks to argue that a new and broader definition of food value should be introduced that includes other factors than the traditional mantra of nutritional value, appearance, and the like. This paper introduces the concept of food consumption value (FCV). Design/methodology/approach – The development of FCV is based upon variou...

Meat is critical with respect to sustainability because meat products are among the most energy-intensive and ecologically burdensome foods. Empirical studies of the meat-consumption frequency of Dutch consumers show that, apart from meat-avoiders and meat-eaters, many people are meat-reducers that eat no meat at least one day per week. Meat-consum...

Sustainable food consumption is an important aspect of sustainable development. When adopting a sustainable food lifestyle, consumers are confronted with complex choices. Today's food consumption is too complex to be explained by socio-demographic factors exclusively. A broader perspective is needed. In order to explain behaviour across different c...

Nutrition related diseases such as some cancers, heart diseases and obesity belong to the most challenging health concerns of our time. Communicating intuitive and simple nutrition information by means of front-of-pack nutrition profile signposting labelling is increasingly seen as an essential tool in efforts to combat unhealthy food choices and i...

Our growing demand for meat and dairy food products is unsustainable. It is hard to imagine that this global issue can be solved solely by more efficient technologies. Lowering our meat consumption seems inescapable. Yet, the question is whether modern consumers can be considered as reliable allies to achieve this shift in meat consumption pattern....

Objective: To simultaneously identify consumer segments based on individual-level consumption and community-level food retail environment data and to investigate whether the segments are associated with BMI and dietary knowledge in China. Design: A multilevel latent class cluster model was applied to identify consumer segments based not only on...

There is ample evidence to suggest that a significant part of daily eating behaviours consists of habits. In line with this, the concept of habit is increasingly incorporated into studies investigating the behavioural and psychosocial determinants of food choice, yielding evidence that habit is one of the most powerful predictors of eating behaviou...

Consumption is a major driving force in China's economy. The consumer society is particularly emerging in the more urbanized and affluent regions in China. Given the rise of consumerism on the one hand, and the rise of overweight and obesity on the other, this study explored whether the proliferating consumer culture is a threat to the traditional...

This paper combines two of today’s most salient phenomena in contemporary China: the remarkable rise of China as a consumer society and the related mounting overweight epidemic, which now includes about 200 million overweight people. Relatively little is understood about the many factors which contribute to the expanding waistlines of the Chinese....

Purpose – This paper seeks to explore the design, organisation and application of group discussions in which projective techniques (expressive and associative) are used to unravel health perception of consumers in cognitive and affective terms. Design/methodology/approach – A trained moderator led four group discussions in which 24 Dutch women, div...

The aim of this study is to examine the preferences of consumers for different information sources when they have a question about food safety. On the basis of a nationally representative survey conducted in the Netherlands, five distinct consumer groups are identified that not only differ on the reported use of information sources but also regardi...

One would believe that with the increasing importance attached to consumers in contemporary affluent societies, the difficulty to understand today's 'butterfly' or 'unmanageable' consumers seems to double simultaneously. Modern consumers defy traditional segmentation by age, gender or income. Classical criteria to distinguish different homogeneous...