Trust Report 2026: Trust in innovation: Between familiarity and fear

Across 18 European countries, the research reveals a complex picture of consumer openness to food innovation. Overall openness to innovative food products increased slightly from 28% in 2024 to 31% in 2025, but remains low. Younger consumers are the most open to innovation, while willingness to try several specific technologies, including precision-fermented dairy, cultivated meat and insects as a source of protein, declined between 2024 and 2025.

Understanding what drives openness to food innovation is critical for policymakers, food businesses, innovators and communicators working to support healthier and more sustainable diets across Europe. The findings highlight the central role of trust: 38% of consumers who trust the food system are open to innovation, compared with just 6% among those with low trust. Familiarity, age, values and cultural narratives also shape whether consumers are willing to accept new food technologies.

Based on nearly 20,000 consumers surveyed as part of the TrustTracker® study, this chapter provides a detailed picture of how Europeans respond to food innovation today. It examines openness to new products and technologies, from personalised nutrition and high-tech indoor farming to precision fermentation and cultivated meat, and explores how trust in the food system can help turn curiosity into acceptance.

The 2026 Trust Report is structured across four focused chapters:

1. Europe wants to eat better, so why isn't it happening?
2. The state of trust in the food system
3. Trust in innovation: Between familiarity and fear
4. Who do consumers believe?

If you would like to find out more about this report, please get in touch via co@eitfood.eu.

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