Microalgae-based Food: Consumer Perception and Willingness to Pay in Austria—a Discrete Choice Based Experiment

Algae-based foods have been gaining increasing popularity in recent years and hold tremendous potential, provided that there is greater awareness and knowledge about microalgae-based foods within both the general population and the food industry. These products not only offer health benefits for the human body but are also cost-effective and environmentally sustainable to produce. Using a discrete choice experiment (DCE), we assessed consumer perception and willingness to pay (WTP) of Austrian consumers for innovative food items made from microalgae, using algae crackers as an illustrative example. To approximate the weighting of the product attributes of origin, price, flavor, production method and packaging, we employed Choice Based Conjoint Analysis (CBCA) through an online survey (n = 301 participants). Subsequently, we approximated WTP for each product attribute based on the outcomes of the CBCA. The study reveals that, on the whole, microalgae-based food products are favorably perceived by consumers. The findings generally align with prior research in the literature, albeit with some noteworthy distinctions. For instance, there is a higher WTP for organic microalgae-based food compared to similar studies where regional production was evaluated to be of higher importance. Consequently, innovative microalgae foods seem to have significant potential in consumer food markets. Food producers should consider the expectations and perceptions of consumers in order to be able to successfully introduce novel microalgae food products in this, currently, niche market

Eating Algae? Consumer Perception of Algae-Based Food in Austria

Algae-based foods are becoming more and more popular in recent years. They not only provide health benefits for the human organism but are also cheap and sustainable to produce. Therefore, algae-based novel food products hold potential for future expansion within the consumer market. On the basis of a discrete choice experiment, we assessed consumer perception and willingness to pay (WTP) of Austrian consumers for innovative food products made from algae on the example of algae crackers. To approximate the weighting of the product attributes origin, price, flavor, production method, and packaging, Choice Based Conjoint Analysis (CBCA) was applied (online survey; n = 301). In addition, socio-demographic data were collected and the preferences of the participants towards algae food products were determined using scales from literature. Subsequently, WTP for each product attribute was approximated based on the outcome of the CBCA.Results of the CBCA show that the attribute “production method” is the most important attribute with an overall importance of 26.7% (maximum part worth utility for the attribute level “organic”), followed by price (25.6%; as expected, the lowest price has the highest part worth utility), origin (20.6%; maximum part worth utility for domestic origin), packaging (17.3%; paper packaging) and taste (9.8%; almost no differences between “spicey”, “salt”, “sweet”). Based on these results, the overall WTP was assessed: +1.90 € for products produced in Austria compared to products imported from the EU; +2.42 € for organically produced and +1.44 € more for paper packaging (in comparison to plastic packaging). Altogether, the present study shows that in general algae-based food products are positively perceived by consumers; the findings are roughly in line with previous studies from literature, with some interesting differences—e.g., higher WTP for organic algae-based food compared to similar studies where regional production was evaluated to be of higher importance. Therefore, it is expected that innovative algae foods have significant potentials in today's consumer food market; however, food producers should consider the expectations and perceptions of consumers in order to be able to successfully introduce novel algae food products in this—at least up to now—niche market

Predictors of fecundability and conception waits among the Dogon of Mali

Surprisingly little is known about the mechanisms that underlie variation in female fertility in humans. Data on this topic are nonetheless vital to a number of pragmatic and theoretical enterprises, including population planning, infertility treatment and prevention, and evolutionary ecology. Here we study female fertility by focusing on one component of the interbirth interval: the waiting time to conception during menstrual cycling. Our study population is a Dogon village of 460 people in Mali, West Africa. This population is pronatalist and noncontracepting. In accordance with animist beliefs, the women spend five nights sleeping at a menstrual hut during menses. By censusing the women present at the menstrual huts in the study village on each of 736 consecutive nights, we were able to monitor women's conception waits prospectively. Hormonal profiles confirm the accuracy of the data on conception waits obtained from the menstrual hut census (Strassmann [1996], Behavioral Ecology 7: 304–315). Using survival analysis, we identified significant predictors of the waiting time to conception: wife's age (years), husband's age (49 years), marital duration (years), gravidity (number of prior pregnancies), and breast-feeding status. Additional variables were not significant, including duration of postpartum amenorrhea, sex of the last child, nutritional status, economic status, polygyny, and marital status (fiancÉe vs. married). We fit both continuous and discrete time survival models, but the former appeared to be a better choice for these data. Am J Phys Anthropol 105:167–184, 1998. © 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/37683/1/5_ftp.pd

Pfingsttagung 1961 in Kassel : biologischer Bericht

von Charlotte und Albert Nieschalk, Korbach/Waldec

Leucorchis albida (E. Meyer) x Orchis maculatus (L.) : erste Beschreibung eines seltenen und für Deutschland neuen Orchideenbastards : mit einer Tafel

von Albert Nieschalk, Korbach (Waldeck