Europe’s food industry leaders are venturing into realms that would have seemed like futuristic concepts just ten years ago: dairy proteins created through precision fermentation, lab-grown meat derived from animal cells, and ingredients sourced from insects.
Navigating the EU’s novel food approval process is one challenge, but a recent report indicates that convincing consumers to purchase these products poses an even greater hurdle.
The latest report from the EIT Food Consumer Observatory, titled “Trust in Innovation: Between Familiarity and Fear,” emphasizes that regulatory approval carries little weight without the backing of public confidence.
Released in conjunction with World Entrepreneurs Day, this report marks the third edition in EIT Food’s TrustTracker collection, gathering insights from approximately 20,000 consumers across Europe. Supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, an EU organization, the research reflects a strong pro-innovation perspective.
The findings reveal a gradual increase in openness to new food products, rising from 28% in 2024 to 31% in 2025. However, the report cautions against complacency, presenting this shift as fragile rather than firmly established, with the underlying data telling a more nuanced story.
It turns out that trust plays a significant role in this increase. Among consumers who express trust in the food system, 38% are open to trying innovative offerings; in contrast, only 6% of those who are skeptical feel the same way. This disparity is more pronounced than most demographic differences in the report, highlighting trust in regulators, producers, retailers, and communicators as crucial for the acceptance of new foods rather than mere familiarity with the associated science.
In stark contrast to the overall improvement, the report also uncovers a troubling trend: consumer willingness to explore specific technologies has declined between 2024 and 2025. Categories like insect protein, precision fermentation dairy, and cultivated meat—those that have garnered significant investment and media focus—are now met with increased caution from consumers.
This hesitance is partly attributed to conflicts with cultural, personal, or religious beliefs, and partly due to strong emotional responses such as disgust or unfamiliarity, which cannot be easily addressed through technical explanations. For manufacturers that have relied heavily on safety data and transparency as persuasive tools, this signals a need for a fundamental shift in messaging.
Age emerges as the most significant factor in the data. Nearly 40% of consumers aged 18-34 consider themselves receptive to new food options, compared to less than 20% of those aged 55 and above. The younger demographic not only displays greater curiosity but also demonstrates a greater propensity to extend conditional trust to new technologies prior to having all the information.
Trust also significantly influences the likelihood of values-driven consumers embracing innovation. Among those intent on maintaining a healthy diet, 32% of high-trust individuals express a willingness to explore innovative technologies, whereas only 8% of low-trust individuals report the same. Similarly, sustainability-focused consumers reflect a parallel trend: acceptance grows from 10% among low-trust respondents to 35% among those who trust the system. In both scenarios, values alone are insufficient to drive behavior—trust acts as a crucial enhancer.
“Food innovation will only succeed if consumers trust the people and systems behind it,” stated Klaus G. Grunert, Marketing Professor at Aarhus University and head of the EIT Food Consumer Observatory. While curiosity about innovation is on the rise, he noted that unfamiliar technologies still encounter considerable obstacles. Achieving acceptance will require innovators to transition from technical jargon to clearly demonstrating how new foods are safe, beneficial, enjoyable, and relevant to daily life.
A key recommendation from the report is to focus less on the mechanisms of technology and more on its connections to people, values, and practical benefits—such as taste, health, enjoyment, and relevance. In an industry that has often relied on a science-driven communication approach centered around safety, this offers a prompt to reconsider the audience of the narrative.
The pipeline for novel foods in Europe is abundant with innovation, yet stymied by a lack of consumer trust. As approval processes begin to clear pathways for more precision-fermentation and cultivated products in the marketplace, the EIT Food data suggests that the pivotal factor will not be regulatory sanction or ingredient novelty, but the level of confidence consumers have in the institutions that place these products on their shelves. Brands that fail to prioritize trust-building as an integral part of their product launch strategies may find regaining consumer acceptance to be even more challenging than initially losing it.