How protein containing foods are represented in memory? A categorization study

Abstract Protein intake for humans is a major issue as the production of meat is contributing to the excess of greenhouse gas emissions and loss of biodiversity. To cover the upcoming protein demand in a sustainable way, a shift from animal-based food items to plant-based ones will be necessary. The aim of this article is to better understand the representations people have of protein containing food and more specifically, the role of origin and process in these representations. Two categorization tasks of pictures of protein containing foods are used: a forced extraction task and an extended sorting task including a property generation step. Our results show that, globally, the origin dimension is preponderant, except for ready-to-eat dishes for which the process dimension is more important. While plant and animal unprocessed foods are clearly two distinct categories with specific properties, plant-based and animal-based ready-to-eat dishes share a large number of properties and thus could be a potential way of decreasing meat consumption by substituting one by the other.