Positive relationship between people’s psychological well-being and their willingness to consume cultivated meat
Researchers from Singapore Management University (SMU) have released a study that reveals a positive relationship between people’s psychological well-being and their willingness to consume cultivated meat. The research, titled ‘Higher well-being individuals are more receptive to cultivated meat: An investigation of their reasoning for consuming cultivated meat’, which has been published in international research journal, Appetite, provides the first ever empirical evidence to support this correlation.
The research also found that individuals’ higher willingness can be motivated by the perception that cultivated meat is as healthy and nutritious, as safe as, and has the same sensory quality as conventional meat, and is beneficial to the society.
In 2020, Singapore became the first country in the world to allow the commercial sale of cultivated meat to diners and shoppers. The year after, the sector attracted $1.9 billion of venture capital. In November 2022, the Food and Drug Administration in the USA announced that it had completed a “pre-market consultation” on cultivated chicken, and raised no safety concerns with its maker, Upside Foods. In December 2022, the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) announced that it allows Eat Just’s cultivated chicken – which will be labelled to indicate they are cultivated meat – to be sold in Singapore, now that its evaluations have determined that it is safe.
On the practical impact of this study and what cultivated meat companies and ecosystem players can take away from this research, Associate Professor Chong said, “Cultivated meat companies can target information related to the health, safety and societal benefits afforded by cultivated meat to higher well-being consumers, and leverage channels such as search advertising.”
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