Consumer and stakeholder acceptance of urban grown food and alternative proteins

My Food Systems SPF Programme research project

The UK food system is facing a wealth of challenges, from greater environmental degradation to the rising number of people facing food insecurity. These pressures mean there is an ongoing push for innovative, safe and sustainable solutions. I’ve worked with my research team to identify urban grown food and alternative proteins as a key target to combat food system challenges.

Before we can achieve this, identifying and overcoming barriers to uptake of these products needs to be addressed. For my research project, I will be looking at consumer and stakeholder views and acceptance of urban grown food and alternative proteins, with the aim of informing safe adoption and best practice. At the end of the project, I will have developed a clear roadmap of recommendations for food policymakers and regulators to help address any barriers to acceptance. I am planning to execute the research in three phases.

The first phase of the research is already underway. During this phase, I am developing and mapping the current evidence base on consumer and stakeholder perceptions of urban grown food and alternative proteins. I am using a mixture of methods including rapid evidence synthesis, large-scale consumer studies, and in-depth stakeholder interviews and focus groups. This will help me to identify barriers and concerns that consumers and stakeholders might have about these foods.

The next phase will be to design and test interventions to address these barriers. I’m particularly excited for this phase as it will involve some real-life sensory and intake testing with consumers and urban grown foods and alternative protein products. As a result, I will be able to monitor real-time consumer reactions and measure consumption to see if I can overcome the barriers identified in Phase 1.

The final phase will involve synthesising my findings and running a number of codesigned workshops with stakeholders to produce a set of recommendations for policy about routes to acceptance. Overall, the three phases will allow me to identify and address barriers to acceptance in order to develop policy recommendations and support food system transformation.

Championing the Food Systems SPF Programme

As part of my fellowship, I will also be working closely with UKRI partners to help strengthen engagement with ongoing and future research programmes. I will be working with the FSA and across the Food Systems SPF Programme, engaging with stakeholders to champion food safety within the UK research community. I want to help ensure that regulatory guidance is considered throughout the project life cycle, all the way from conception to delivery.

Over the next three years, I will be working with the Food Systems SPF Programme leaders and research teams, policymakers, community groups and academics to support impact and collaboration. I am already enjoying getting to know the members of the Food Systems SPF consortia projects, to keep up to date with the incredible research being carried out. For example, I recently visited the FixOurFood Team at their urban farm in York to get hands-on experience of their project and food system transformation in action.

I am keen to support engagement and knowledge exchange within the Food Systems SPF Programme and the FSA. In November, I contributed to the FSA’s UK Food System Centre for Doctoral Training (UKFS-CDT) seminar session. Here I presented the plans for my fellowship with the doctoral researchers and shared examples of working across disciplines to support the FSA’s research priorities. I am also supporting the Food Systems SPF Programme’s early career researcher (ECR) network to provide a space and platform for ECRs to interact, learn from one another and engage with the FSA and stakeholders directly.

I also have a number of other exciting engagement activities in the pipeline. For example, I will be contributing to the FSA’s involvement in the Spring 2022 UKRI SCENARIO Doctoral Training Partnership’s ‘Tiger Teams’ initiative. Here, interdisciplinary teams of doctoral students will work to tackle food system ‘problems’ posed by the FSA and other organisations. I am pleased to be able to represent the FSA and Food Systems SPF Programme interests in a way that can deliver scalable solutions to food system challenges.

Future work

I am excited for what the next few years will hold, starting with a rapid evidence review to kick-off our project and meeting key stakeholders across the FSA and Food Systems SPF Programme. By the end of the three years, I will have developed strategies to support policy, safe adoption and best practice relating to acceptance of urban grown food and alternative proteins, which both have the potential to contribute to food system transformation.

Together, working across the Food Systems SPF Programme and with UKRI partners, the FSA and other key stakeholders, we will ensure that food safety and regulation play a key role in the work that the Food Systems SPF Programme research teams are doing to transform our food system. This fellowship is the first step in my career in food systems research that delivers impact and ensures that everybody has access to healthy, sustainable and safe food.