Antecedents of food neophobia and its association with eating behavior and food choices

• Food neophobia influences people’s daily eating behavior.
• The product origin seems to be important to people with higher food neophobia.
• Older males from rural areas with a lower income have higher neophobia scores.

Antecedents and associations of food neophobia were measured. Data came from a large mail survey (N = 4436) conducted in the German- and French-speaking parts of Switzerland. Results of a multiple regression analysis showed that age was positively, and income and education were negatively associated with food neophobia. Men had higher values compared to women, and participants from the German-speaking part had higher values compared with participants from the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Food neophobia also decreased with urbanization. Food consumption and liking of foods were correlated with food neophobia. Persons with higher food neophobia scores consumed smaller amounts of vegetables, salad, poultry, and fish compared with persons with lower food neophobia scores. Food neophobia was also positively related to the importance of the Swiss origin of foods. Food neophobia has a negative impact on people’s food variety and on the consumption of recommended foods such as vegetables or fish.