Neophobia, Trust, and Perceived Risk in Consumer Responses to Sustainability-Relevant Food Innovations: An Integrative Review and Conceptual Framework

Background/Objectives: Consumer responses to sustainability-relevant food innovations are associated with psychological factors such as food neophobia (FN), food technology neophobia (FTN), trust, perceived risks and benefits, and food-safety-related perceptions. However, these constructs have been examined across heterogeneous contexts, measures, and outcomes. This review aimed to integrate this evidence, examine reported direct and indirect relationships, and develop an evidence-informed conceptual framework. Methods: Five construct-specific searches were conducted in the Web of Science Core Collection and Scopus. Following title/abstract and full-text screening, 288 English-language, peer-reviewed empirical studies with explicit relevance to food-system sustainability were included and synthesised narratively. Results: FN and FTN were generally associated with less favourable consumer responses, although their relative relevance varied with the food, production technology, familiarity, and population. Trust was generally associated with more favourable responses, but associations differed by trust referent and outcome. Innovation-related perceived risk was predominantly associated with less favourable responses, and perceived benefits with more favourable responses. Formal evidence for indirect pathways was limited: only a small number of studies tested FN/FTN- or trust-related indirect relationships through risk and/or benefit perceptions, and their results were heterogeneous. Food-safety-related perceptions, closely related to perceived risk, were operationalised in different ways: safety concerns were generally associated with less favourable responses, whereas perceived safety was associated with more favourable responses. Willingness and behavioural intentions were the most frequently assessed outcomes, whereas few studies assessed behaviour, and evidence from low-income and lower-middle-income countries was limited. Conclusions: Across sustainability-relevant food innovations, consumer responses were generally associated with novelty-related dispositions, referent-specific trust, and parallel risk and benefit appraisals, but the configuration of these relationships varied with the innovation, population, and outcome considered. The evidence is strongest for direct associations with stated responses, whereas indirect pathways and links to behaviour remain less well established. By integrating these constructs within a common framework, this review provides a structured basis for testing their temporal ordering and their relevance to actual purchasing and consumption.