(Un)acceptable protein shift: Consumer attitudes toward retail-led interventions promoting sustainable diets

Abstract

Transforming global and local food systems is essential for achieving current sustainability goals. A significant lever for the food sector is promoting a dietary shift away from animal-based proteins towards more plant-based options. Food retailers, positioned at the centre of the value chain, hold a uniquely influential role, as they have the capacity to shape the behaviours of both producers and consumers. However, consumer acceptability is a precondition for implementing behavioural change interventions, and there is a current knowledge gap regarding public acceptability of various retail-led interventions. In this study, we assess consumer acceptability of five categories of food retail-led interventions: information-based, norms-based, choice architecture, price-based, and choice restriction. In this mission we developed a survey and recruited a nationally representative sample (n = 424), we found price manipulations and choice restrictions to be less accepted than strategies building on information, norms, and choice architecture. Furthermore, a multi-level model showed that perceived effectiveness, fairness, and freedom of choice were significant predictors of acceptance for the interventions, with the exception that freedom of choice did not predict support for either the norm-based intervention or choice architecture. Lastly, we showcase how older age, positive meat attitudes, and strong meat-buying habits hindered acceptance, while biospheric values, environmental identity, and altruism facilitated it. Two potential courses of retailer action are identified: (1) immediately implement high-support interventions based on information, social norms, and choice architecture and (2) explore how to convey intervention effectiveness to increase consumer acceptability of price-based interventions and choice restrictions.