The Flexitarian Flip™ in university dining venues: Student and adult consumer acceptance of mixed dishes in which animal protein has been partially replaced with plant protein

There is a growing interest in the shift from meat-centric diets towards plant-based diets due to the negative impacts of meat production and consumption on public health and the environment. This research tested the Flexitarian Flip™ in a university dining venue context, by partially replacing meat with legumes in current Dining Services recipes. A two-part Central Location Test was conducted with a college student population sample (n = 118) in a University of California, Davis campus dining venue. This study was repeated at a later date with n = 110 adults ages 18-88 years. Acceptability measures were collected for two recipes (an Indian dish and a Latin American dish), two meat levels (high meat/low legume (HM) and low meat/high legume (LM)), and two spiciness levels (Regular and Spicy). The student and adult consumer populations had similar results, and preference segments were found for both. Overall, in the Latin American recipe, the HM samples had higher acceptability than the LM samples, and in the Indian recipe, the HM and LM had similar acceptability. The LM Spicy sample had the same acceptability as both the Regular and Spicy HM samples or higher, depending on the preference segment. Additionally, the higher level of trigeminal heat increased perceived flavor complexity. To achieve the highest consumer acceptability of plant-forward mixed dishes, a mixture of legumes and vegetables, rather than vegetables or legumes alone, is recommended as a partial replacement for meat, along with a trigeminal boost in the recipe to maintain perceived flavor complexity.