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MP15341

MAPS HEALTHY EATING JULY 2001

Overview

Editor: Simon Taylor
ISBN: 1-86111-365-X

Table of Contents

Executive Summary

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The question of healthy eating has become increasingly important within the overall food market, with continuing public and media interest in the topic being fuelled by research findings and government initiatives. This has undoubtedly benefited many specific product areas, including organic, vegetarian and low-fat/low-sugar foods. However, the issues are complex, and there have been negative as well as positive developments over the past few years.

Key Note's original research for this report reveals that there is a certain amount of consumer scepticism about the food health claims made by manufacturers and retailers, with a high proportion of respondents agreeing that they would prefer to decide for themselves whether or not a certain product is healthy. However, a minority do agree that they find it difficult to do this — these are most likely to be the middle-aged consumers (45 to 64), who are also the ones least likely to believe manufacturers’ claims.

The high level of effort which manufacturers and retailers have been putting into healthy food markets over the past 3 years does seem to have had a considerable effect on consumer attitudes. For example, they seem to be becoming more aware of the importance of healthy eating: although a significant minority of respondants in the 2001 survey agree that ‘people make too much fuss about whether food and drink is healthy or not’, this is less than in 1998.

The market for reduced-fat and reduced-sugar products is well-established in the UK, having grown up in response to growing consumer awareness of the link between health and diet, combined with an increased reliance on processed foods, many of which contain large quantitities of fat and/or sugar.

The rapid growth of the market for organic foods since the late 1990s has been fuelled by the interest of major manufacturers and retailers, most of whom have now acted to try to obtain their own place within the market. Perhaps inevitably, however, there have been the beginnings of trouble ahead, including the scaling down of ambitious organic plans by frozen food retailer Iceland, and the raising of concerns about the motives of the mainstream companies which have been entering the market.

Key Note’s research may provide the first indications of consumer disenchantment in organic food, as since 1998 there has been a decrease in the proportion of respondents who say they buy organic food whenever they can. However, this may simply indicate that the consumer base has narrowed to a smaller, but more enthusiastic, group who now buy organic foods in greater quantities than they did before — perhaps because of their wider availability.

However, there are also indications that the efforts of manufacturers and retailers to provide good quality organic foods have paid off, with fewer respondents than in 1998 complaining that organic foods are too expensive, or that they are not of good quality.

The growth of the market for vegetarian foods over the past decade has been led not only by increases in the number of people choosing to follow a totally vegetarian diet, but also by changing attitudes to meat among
non-vegetarians. Despite the continuing importance of health-related reasons for turning to vegetarian foods, there have recently been signs of a slight down-turn in the market. This may be connected to the success of the organic sector, which is now addressing many of the health-related and environmental/ethical concerns which led many of those who are not committed vegetarians to choose vegetarian options. In a logical move, the specialist vegetarian sector is beginning to fight back against the ‘threat’ from organics, and there have been a number of launches of organic vegetarian products over the past few years.

The research conducted by Key Note in 1998 and 2001 showed that there has been a slight decrease in the number of households containing at least one non-meat eater. However, a significant minority of respondents said that, although they were meat-eaters themselves, they ate at least four meat-free meals each week.

The future growth of the reduced-fat/reduced-sugar market may be hampered to an extent by the fact that consumers are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their understanding of what goes into the food they eat, and are less inclined than they were to accept without question the food industry’s attempts to use science in food manufacturing in order to create ‘healthier’ products. The future is probably brightest for lower-fat versions of indulgent and/or exotic foods which consumers can treat themselves to on an occasional basis, rather than for the ultra-low-fat variants of everyday foods.

Text © 2001 MAPS

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Last updated by Mandy Porteous September 2001