From microbes to market: Unveiling consumers’ beliefs regarding precision fermentation-derived Gouda

Environmental and ethical challenges associated with livestock farming have spurred the development of innovative food production approaches. Precision fermentation offers a promising strategy to create authentic animal-free dairy products, by harnessing microorganisms to produce milk proteins. As an alternative production process for cheese, which many consumers find hard to forgo, this approach can make a significant contribution to more sustainable food production – provided that consumers accept such innovative foods. This pre-registered study aimed to investigate German consumers’ purchase intentions for Gouda, produced using precision fermentation. It was examined whether consumers’ self-oriented beliefs, focusing on safety, nutritiousness, and taste, or their societal-oriented beliefs, emphasizing climate change mitigation, animal welfare, and food security, more strongly influenced their attitudes toward the product. Additionally, the study assessed the moderating effects of environmental self-identity, trust in food sector stakeholders, and food technology neophobia. An online survey was conducted with 420 participants. The hypothesized model was tested using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling to determine the relationships between beliefs, moderating factors, consumers’ attitudes and purchase intentions. The estimation suggests that both self-oriented and societal-oriented beliefs exhibit positive effects on consumers’ attitudes, with self-oriented beliefs playing a dominant role. Contrary to expectations, food technology neophobia positively moderated the relationship between self-oriented beliefs and attitudes. These findings highlight the importance of consumer education emphasizing safety, nutritiousness, and taste, for the successful market introduction of precision fermentation-derived Gouda in Germany. Future research should conduct purchasing experiments and taste tests to further explore consumer behavior in real-world settings. • Modeled belief-based drivers of acceptance for precision fermentation-derived Gouda. • Defined self-oriented and societal-oriented beliefs using an expectancy-value framework. • Applied PLS-SEM to assess relationships between beliefs, attitudes and intentions. • Taste and safety emerged as key factors for shaping consumers’ attitudes. • Food technology neophobia amplified the effect of self-oriented beliefs on attitudes.