Jellyfish as sustainable food source: A cross-cultural study among Latin American countries

TORRI, L.; TUCCILO, F.; PUENTE TAPIA, F.A.; MORANDINI, A. C.; SEGOVIA, J.; NEVAREZ-LÓPEZ, C.; LEONI, V.; FAILLA SIQUIER, G.; CANEPA-ONETO, A.; QUIÑONES, J. A. D.; CEDEÑO-POZO, C. M.; LAAZ, E.; PRECIADO, M.; SCHIARITI, A.

FOOD QUALITY AND PREFERENCE

ELSEVIER SCI LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2023

0950-3293

Consumption of jellyfish is popular in Asian countries butneglected in other continents, where their abundance could represent asustainable food source. This study explored the potential of jellyfish as foodin Latin America with a cross-cultural perspective. An online survey wasdistributed within the Latin American population and completed by around 7000participants of 18 to 90 years old. The survey included questions aboutsocio-demographics and personality traits, and on the attitude to consume jellyfishas food itself and in several different modalities. A positive average attitudetowards jellyfish was observed in terms of consumption attitude, foodappropriateness, expected liking and willingness to buy jellyfish as food. Asignificant effect of socio-demographics parameters was found, with jellyfishconsumption attitude increasing as the age and the educational level increased.On the contrary, food neophobia and sensitivity to disgust resulted negativelycorrelated to all variables used to estimate the attitude towards jellyfish.Comparing the outcomes obtained from nine countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile,Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay; N>500 per country),numerous significant differences were identified. Argentinians and Ecuadoriansshowed the highest and lowest, respectively, average scores for jellyfishconsumption attitude, appropriateness, expected liking and willingness to buy.Based on the modality of consumption related variables (visible appearance,ingredient role, cooking method, carrier flavor of the recipe) four groups ofcountries with similar attitude were observed: 1) Argentina and Peru; 2) Mexicoand Colombia; 3) Brazil; 4) Uruguay, Chile, El Salvador, and Ecuador.  Moreover, Chileans, Peruvians, Argentinians,Uruguayans, Brazilians and Ecuadorians preferred to pair jellyfish with fish,sauces, potatoes, vegetables, soups, sweet and snacks while Colombians,Mexicans and Salvadorians preferred pairing jellyfish with pizza, meat,beverages, bread, pasta, fruits, dairy products and fats. In conclusion, thisresearch provided new insights useful to develop new sustainable jellyfishproducts for the market.