Young Generation's Preference for Plant-Based Meat Substitute Burger in Asia: Evidence from Taiwan

The rising trend of plant-based burger in the world market reflects the emerging awareness of ensuring food security while reducing carbon footprints to achieve environmental sustainability. Plant-based meat substitute is introduced to the market to satisfy the demand of those who are willing to reduce the meat consumption but refuse to compromise on the taste of meat. Burger patty mimicking the sensory attributes of beef patty is the primary product of plant-based burger. The purpose of this research is to examine how tasting experience would affect the preferences and willingness to pay by the young generation for plant-based meat substitute burger in Taiwan using discrete choice experiment. The experiment sessions are conducted on campus with the recruitment of undergraduates as participants. Our main results suggest that tasting experience can increase the young people's willingness to pay for plant-based burger. Young people show stronger preference for the plant-based meat substitute burger after the tasting experiment. Those who have a preference for plant-based meat substitute patty after the tasting experiment are more likely to be females who believe that plant-based meat substitute burger is healthier than beef counterparts. Young people remain to be price sensitive regardless of the tasting experiences. The potential negative effects from higher saturated fat in the food product might be ignored after the tasting, implying the meat substitute patty outweighs other nutritional concerns and play more critical role in determining the change in preferences among food substitutes. Retailers could consider tasting trials as one of their marketing strategies to raise the acceptance of plant-based meat substitutes by the young generation, while keeping the price at the affordable level for young generation across different age groups and occupations. Potential food policy implications can be targeted toward the retailing side to encourage more new customers who might not be interested in such meat substitute but would however alter their behavior when tasting events are available.

關鍵字

Plant-based Meat Substitute ； Discrete Choice Experiment ； Willingness to Pay ； Young Generation ； Tasting Experience

並列摘要

近年來環境永續利用意識興起，人們希望在確保糧食安全同時也能降低碳足跡，這趨勢使得植物肉消費意願在全球逐漸提升。目前在市場上推出的植物肉主要是作為肉類替代品，其中仿牛肉餅口感與口味的植物肉漢堡即是主要品項之一。本研究目的是以年輕族群為研究對象，利用問卷調查及離散選擇試驗法，透過實際品嚐體驗分析影響臺灣年輕族群對植物肉漢堡的偏好因素與其願付價格。研究結果顯示，品嚐經驗將增加年輕族群購買植物肉漢堡的意願；實際品嚐後，年輕族群對植物肉漢堡將更偏好，尤其是多數相信植物肉漢堡較一般牛肉漢堡更健康女性消費族群；無論品嚐經驗如何，年輕族群仍對價格敏感；品嚐後，食物中高飽和脂肪的潛在負面影響可能被忽略，意味著植物肉漢堡的重要性勝過脂肪的營養考量，且在食品替代選擇上扮演重要角色。零售商可藉由舉辦「試吃」的行銷策略，以提高消費者對植物肉的接受度，並將價格維持在年輕族群可接受的水準。或許從零售業者開始，鼓勵其開發更多對初始對植物性肉類不感興趣但在提供品嚐體驗後改變其消費的新客戶，作為改變糧食政策的一個方式。

並列關鍵字

植物肉；離散選擇試驗法；願付價格；年輕族群；品嚐經驗

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