Convenience Key Driver for Australia’s Food Health Choices
Australians prefer their food to come from natural sources, however are not prepared to forego eating out, take-away and pre-prepared foods/meals from supermarkets, the new Ipsos Food Health report has revealed.
The report shows the extent to which provenance and issues related to it, including sustainable use of resources and support for farmers, are important to Australians.
More than eight out of every 10 respondents (85%) say that the origin of their food was somewhat or very important to them. More than six in 10 (62%) somewhat or totally agree that food production should use our country’s resources in a more environmentally sustainable way, and almost six in 10 (59%) somewhat or totally agree that supporting Australian farmers is more important than getting cheap milk and bread.
It found that in general Australians believe that the best pathway to health is through natural sources over fortified foods and vitamins and supplements, with 63% somewhat or totally agreeing with this statement.
This was compared with 20% who somewhat or totally agree that vitamin pills and supplements are needed for proper nutrition given our modern diet.
The first annual Ipsos Food Health Report was developed to build a picture of what Australian consumers eat in relation to how they view health and wellbeing. It aims to build a picture of the consumer mindset in each socio-economic segment of attitudes to food and health, and also reveal the food choices people actively make and those they avoid.
The report shares some common metrics with the Australian Health Survey (AHS), enabling Ipsos to link insights into mindset around health and attitudes to key health outcomes.
The first Ipsos Food Health Report also explored the extent to which Australians, regardless of their mindset about food and health, rely on eat in, take away and pre-prepared foods from supermarkets every week. The research showed that Australians eat non-home cooked evening meals 2.5 times a week on average (including eating out, take-away, and supermarket ready-to-eat prepared meals).
“These non-home cooked options are now a permanent and important part of how we eat, but there is little intention to cut down on these options to improve health and wellbeing,” says Kathy Benson, the Director of the Ipsos Food Health Report.
“Despite good intentions to eat more fruit and vegetables over the year ahead – which was the top food priority for 11% of respondents – only 2% said that eating out less was their top priority in terms of food, for the next 12 months.”
The report also includes a revealing attitudinal segmentation based on mindset. There are five different typical mindsets* with clear differences in attitudes to food and health as well as choices of food and drink, lifestyle and health outcomes. The segments also reveal that convenience drives consumer dinner choices in all segments regardless of their mindset about food and health.
Research for the Ipsos Food Health Report will be conducted online using a nationally representative sample of people aged 18+ with quotas of age, gender and location.
* Segment names: Active & Traditional; Fearful & Faddish; Inactive & Indifferent; Seasoned & Sensible and Complete Convenience.
