These crops are sources usually rich in fatty acids, sterols, phenolic compounds, and dietary fiber, which have mainly shown the ability to increase satiety and obesity control and prevent other different diseases. Many oils predominantly supply mostly essential linoleic and considerably less α-linolenic fatty acids; however, greater amounts of ALA are found in flaxseed, hempseed , and camelina oils . The interest in various seeds and their consumption is steadily growing in Lithuania. The appreciation of global food diversity and acceptance of different foreign edible seeds such as chia, sesame, and others also promote the usage of traditional local edible seeds. Despite the fact that Camelina sativa as a food crop was forgotten by the Lithuanian population, paleobotanical and archaeological data indicate that crop cultivation, including Cannabis sativa and Camelina sativa, appeared in Lithuania in the middle of the Bronze Age .
The flax was introduced most recently, during the Late Iron Age , and used for fifiber and seed production. Notwithstanding that cultivation of Cannabis sativa was disallowed, people in Žemaitija , the western region of Lithuania, did not forget an ancient meal of grounded hemp and flax seeds with salt and used it at least on Christmas Eve. Research evidence about anti-inflammatory, anti-hyperalgesic, anti-arthritic, and other clinical effects of cannabidiol and resumption of the opportunity to continue the cultivation of industrial hemp highly increased the interest in Cannabis sativa and its products. These ancient widely distributed species of oil crops being cultivated in different countries have been studied, and the results regarding their nutritional qualities have been published . The obtained differences in the fatty acid composition were explained by the differences between cultivars, as well as differences in genetic diversity, geographical area, soil quality, and climatic conditions . Unlike flax and hemp, which are only annual, spring-sowed species, Lithuanian farmers are growing both springand autumn-sowed Camelina cultivars.
Thus, the objective of this study was to determine species-associated differences in the seed proximate and fatty acid composition of three traditional oil crop species and the sowing season of camelina harvested under Lithuanian farming conditions for food use. Understanding the evaluative processes in consumers’ decisions to sample a novel food has received a great deal of attention in recent times. Increased use of novel technology in food production, increased globalization and exposure to new markets for consumers, and a need to develop foods with greater environmental sustainability provides a potentially increased market for novel food products. Understanding consumer perceptions and attitudes toward novel foods have become an integral component of the development process for these products to succeed in the market . There are several standardized psychometric instruments that evaluate discrete factors of novel foods, general food choice, and personal attributes which might influence novel food acceptance but there is not currently a standardized instrument that allows evaluation of intention to consume foods that applies broadly across all types of novel foods.
A common framework employed in the evaluation of discrete novel foods is the Theory of Planned Behaviour . Consistent with other studies the current research has utilized a two-stage approach to item development and data collection under the TPB framework to evaluate consumers’ intention to consume hemp food. Hemp food produced from the seeds of the plant cannabis sativa is a recent introduction to the Australian market, having passed legislative requirements for approval as a novel food in November 2017 . Hemp food was previously illegal in Australia due to aperception of issues related to controlling product levels of tetrahydrocannabinol , the psychoactive property of cannabis. As a consequence, the approval of hemp food now includes a requirement that all production, importing, and manufacture of hemp food products undergo a stringent compliance process aimed at keeping THC levels well below prescribed percentages that would potentially induce a psychoactive effect in the consumer . Research of the effects of THC in hemp food at designated percentages has determined that “consumption of low-content THC oil does not result in positive biological assessments” .
Hemp food is marketed to consumers as having several health benefits and promoted to producers as an environmentally sustainable and high-yielding crop. Despite the purported benefits, however, hemp food does not seem to have infiltrated the Australian market to a degree that might be expected . Hemp food presents as a unique type of novel food, with many associations to other uses of cannabis from building products and textiles to medicinal products and illicit uses . Evaluating the impact these associations might have on the acceptance and intention to consume hemp food has the potential to not only assist the Australian hemp food industry to better understand consumer perceptions of their products but may also provide a protocol for evaluation of novel foods to be developed in the future.