Consumers’ purchase intention for upcycled foods: Insights from Turkey

More than one third of food produced globally is wasted. To address this problem and reduce food loss and waste, several attempts have been made to utilize food waste as an ingredient in new food products, so called upcycled foods. Awareness and acceptance of such products among consumers is vital information for the food industry to pursue this upcoming line of products, which has led to numerous attempts recently that explore consumer attitudes towards upcycled food products. The present study measured familiarity of 447 Turkish participants with upcycling concept as well as the significant factors that impacted the awareness on the issue, most effective of which were recycling and/or cooking at home frequency. Furthermore, purchase intention of upcycled food products was estimated based on several variables. It was revealed that generation, gender, and dedication to recycling at home affected willingness to buy upcycled foods. Moreover, consumers were more interested in buying such products when they had higher quality and better taste expectations from them, as well as when they considered these products to help solving food waste problem.