5. Conclusions
This study investigated consumer acceptance of new technologies in food by focusing on the specific case studies of Shelf Life Extension. The results evidenced that higher levels of food knowledge led to an increase in acceptance whereas, in contrast, a greater interest in sustainability led to technology rejection. The knowledge-acceptance relationship is still an important concern in communicating with citizens in a more efficient way. If knowledge represented one of the main barriers to consumer acceptance, in this direction, policies such as information campaigns or educational programs could be recommended to make the consumers more knowledgeable and informed about food choices. At the same time, the data revealed that, in this specific study, people with a higher level of sustainability of food consumption practices were those less prone to accept new technologies in food products. This raised some cues of reflection and suggested the presence of a sustainability paradox. Indeed, the main purpose for the development of Shelf Life Extension technologies is the achievement of a more sustainable food chain, by improving the efficiency of logistics operations and reducing food waste. Nevertheless, the consumers more concerned with sustainable consumption were still those who most severely refused such technologies. The presence of this paradox first suggested that, in the food domain, the risk perception related to the use of technologies is able to overcome environmentally driven benefit perceptions. Second, that the consumer perception of sustainability issues in food is strongly associated with the idea of ‘ancient naturalness’; purchasing food products is sustainable only when they are local, organic, and traditional: innovation and sustainability simply cannot match. In other words, although the experts are aware that the achievement of sustainability goals can only be addressed through a combination of ‘back to the past’ and ‘towards the future’ strategies, lay people have probably not been sufficiently informed on this issue to date. This study had some limitations. The face-to-face survey raised the issues of social desirability bias and under/over estimation of responses due to stated preferences, which can partially affect the results of the present study. The second issue was related to the sample, Millennial Students, which represented a very specific population and, consequently, did not allow the generalization of the results. Third, the consumers’ willingness to try SLE products could be partially affect by other product attributes (i.e. freshness), thus, a more comprehensive framework is required. Moreover, the analysis referred to the case of Italy, and further research is needed to verify the outcomes in other countries with different characteristics.
