This study maps the recent scholarly landscape on consumer acceptance of edible insects and insect-based foods and empirically investigates factors shaping Indian urban households' behavioral intention to accept insect-based foods. Specifically, it examines cognitive, normative, psychological and cultural determinants of attitude and intention and tests the moderating role of cultural influence.
A two-pronged approach was adopted. A systematic review of relevant literature was conducted using the Scopus database in August 2025, covering the timeframe 2018–2025, and included only peer-reviewed English-language articles, which were screened following PRISMA guidelines. A total of 58 articles were selected and analyzed using the Theory-Context-Characteristics-Methodology (TCCM) framework to systematically map theoretical foundations, contextual settings, key characteristics and methodological approaches in the literature. Bibliometric analyses were performed using Bibliometrix R and VOSviewer to identify publication trends, key authors, influential journals, keyword co-occurrences and country-level citation patterns. Subsequently, a survey of 300 urban households in Coimbatore, India, was conducted to assess consumer experience, perceptions and disgust toward insect-based foods. A conceptual model based on the Theory of Planned Behavior was developed and tested using partial-least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) in SmartPLS to identify determinants of consumer attitudes and behavioral intentions.
Bibliometric mapping shows an increasing publication trend since 2018, with food-science and consumer-behaviour journals most active and recurring keyword clusters around consumer attitudes, neophobia, disgust and sustainability. PLS-SEM results indicate that Food Neophobia and Disgust Sensitivity are the strongest predictors of attitude toward insect consumption. Knowledge and Awareness, Perceived Benefits, Moral Norms, Subjective Norms and Perceived Behavioral Control also significantly influence attitude. Attitudes, in turn, significantly predict behavioral intentions, with cultural influence moderating this relationship. Overall, the model demonstrates strong explanatory power, accounting for approximately 72.1% of the variance in behavioral intention.
Findings suggest that interventions should prioritize reducing psychological barriers such as neophobia and disgust while also providing clear guidance for policymakers, food producers and marketers to design appropriate products (e.g. processed forms), implement targeted awareness campaigns and develop strategies to improve consumer acceptance. These insights can inform policies aimed at strengthening food security and sustainability while supporting commercial stakeholders to deliver market-ready products aligned with Indian consumer preferences and to gradually normalise sustainable alternative proteins within mainstream Indian diets.
Understanding barriers and drivers of acceptance at the household level supports evidence-based strategies for integrating insect-based proteins into sustainable food systems and contributes to broader policy debates on alternative protein adoption.
By combining bibliometric mapping with primary empirical testing in an Indian urban context, this study integrates macro-level knowledge trends with micro-level behavioral evidence, addressing a significant literature gap on entomophagy from a South Asian perspective and offering context-specific insights for theory and practice. The study further contributes by extending the Theory of Planned Behavior with culturally relevant constructs such as disgust sensitivity, food neophobia and cultural influence to examine consumer acceptance of insect-based foods in India, an underrepresented region in this domain of research.
