Cell-cultivated meat and seafood is getting closer to a reality for consumers in the US and around the world. However, regulators are still largely lagging behind on regulating production and labelling of these products. In a large experimental study using a representative US sample (N = 2653), we tested 9 different names for 3 different types of meat and seafood products in terms of their clarity, consumer appeal, and communication of safety and allergenicity. We found that terms proposed by the conventional meat and seafood industry including ‘artificial’ and ‘lab-grown’ tended to score low in terms of consumer appeal, purchase intent, and perceived safety, while ‘artificial’ also had the lowest score on clarity and communicating allergenicity. On the other hand, terms proposed by the cell-cultivated industry including ‘Novari’ scored high in terms of appeal and purchase intent but scored low in terms of clarity. The terms ‘cell-cultured’ and ‘cell-cultivated’ were the best all round labels in terms of clarity, appeal, and communicating safety and allergenicity – in particular, the addition of the prefix ‘cell-’ increased understanding compared to ‘cultured’ or ‘cultivated’ labels. The most-understood label was a short descriptive phrase (‘grown from [animal] cells, not farmed [or fished]’), suggesting that additional wording on packaging could aid consumer understanding in this early stage. A high proportion of consumers were uncertain about the allergen status of cell-cultivated products under all names, suggesting that cell-cultivated products should be labelled as the type of meat they are, and carry applicable allergen information.

No abstract

In recent decades, marine resources have faced extreme environmental pressures due to growing global fish consumption. Both commercial fishing and aquaculture harm the environment, threaten public health, and entail morally dubious practices. While consumers have increasingly become aware of the implications of the global fishing industry, most still want to eat seafood. Recent advancements in food technology have resulted in the successful production of cell-cultivated fish. Grown from real fish cells, cell-cultivated seafood avoids many of the issues associated with conventional fish production. Although cell-cultivated seafood will soon be available to consumers, there is not yet consensus on a ‘common or usual name’, a requirement of the US Food and Drug Administration for novel foods. We present a public discourse analysis, and the results of two online US-based surveys (n=2,452 and n=1,839) analyzing consumer acceptance and understanding of key terms used to describe cultured fish. Adult participants were tested for knowledge and acceptability of multiple descriptive terms: Bio-crafted, Bio-Cultivated, Cell-based, Cultivated, Cultured, Molecular, and the coined term ‘Novari’. The Control was a description of the product coupled with realistic packaging a consumer may expect to find once the product is available for purchase. The discourse analysis indicated that there is no current consensus on terminology used to describe cell-cultivated meat, and that some of the most commonly-used terms currently tend to be used in a negative context. Our Phase I survey revealed that names such as ‘cell-based’ and ‘bio-crafted’ were more likely to be understood, but relatively unappealing, while names such as ‘cultivated’ and ‘Novari’ were more appealing, but less likely to be understood. Our Phase II survey further revealed that the term ‘cell-cultivated’ combined promising elements of these terms, and was subsequently more appealing than ‘cell-based’ and better-understood than both ‘cultivated’ and ‘cell-based’. That said, none of the names tested outperformed the control group in consumer ability to identify the product accurately

Cell-cultivated meat and seafood is getting closer to a reality for consumers in the US and around the world. However, regulators are still largely lagging behind on regulating production and labelling of these products. In a large experimental study using a representative US sample (N=2,653), we tested 9 different names for 3 different types of meat and seafood products in terms of their clarity, consumer appeal, and communication of safety and allergenicity. We found that terms proposed by the conventional meat and seafood industry including ‘artificial’ and ‘lab-grown’ tended to score low in terms of consumer appeal, purchase intent, and perceived safety, while ‘artificial’ also had the lowest score on clarity and communicating allergenicity. On the other hand, terms proposed by the cell-cultivated industry including ‘Novari’ scored high in terms of appeal and purchase intent, but scored low in terms of clarity. The terms ‘cell-cultured’ and ‘cell-cultivated’ were the best all round labels in terms of clarity, appeal, and communicating safety and allergenicity – in particular, the addition of the prefix ‘cell-’ increased understanding compared to ‘cultured’ or ‘cultivated’ labels. The most-understood label was a short control phrase (‘grown from [animal] cells, not farmed [or fished]’), suggesting that additional wording on packaging could aid consumer understanding in this early stage. A high proportion of consumers were uncertain about the allergen status of cell-cultivated products under all names, suggesting that cell-cultivated products should be labelled as the type of meat they are, and carry applicable allergen information.