“Our health is your responsibility,” consumers tell food companies

09 Aug 2017 --- Nine out of ten consumers believe food companies have a responsibility to make sure their diet is healthy, online consumer research shows. In a survey of more than 1,000 consumers worldwide conducted on behalf of specialist PR agency Ingredient Communications, 52 percent of respondents said food and beverage companies have “a lot” of responsibility for ensuring consumers eat a healthy diet, and a further 37 percent said they had “some.” 

Only 9 percent of consumers thought food and beverage companies had no responsibility at all.

Consumers in Asia were much more likely to place the burden of responsibility on food companies. Nearly seven in ten (68 percent) said food companies had a lot of responsibility for ensuring they had a healthy diet, compared with four in ten (39 percent) of the Westerners surveyed.

Respondents were also presented with seven different sources of information about health and nutrition and asked to list them in order of trustworthiness. The survey revealed that levels of trust in the food industry are relatively low compared with other sources of information about health and nutrition

Globally, doctors and other healthcare professionals were the most trusted, with 72 percent of consumers ranking them either highest or second-highest. After doctors, respondents put the most trust in government and health authorities (ranked top by 23 percent) and friends and family (15 percent).

However, food and beverage companies came low on the list. Four in ten respondents (41 percent) placed them in either last or in second-to-last place, and only 5 percent put them top. The list also included celebrity chefs, celebrities (non-chefs) and journalists and bloggers.

Notably, trust in food and beverage companies appears to be highest in the US, where 14 percent of consumers ranked them above any other source of information. Americans were also least likely to put doctors at the top of their lists, with just 32 percent doing so.

“Our research makes clear the scale of the challenge facing the food industry. On the one hand, consumers expect food and beverage manufacturers to demonstrate a commitment to helping them to eat healthily,” says Richard Clarke, Director of Ingredient Communications.

“On the other, many people distrust the information they provide. There’s no quick fix for this. Manufacturers need to continue to work hard to win the trust of consumers. The key to achieving this is the use of healthy, natural ingredients and embracing clean and clear labeling, as well as developing innovative new ways to demonstrate their commitment to promoting healthy diets. In time, this approach will pay off, and we would expect levels of trust to rise,” Clarke adds.

“One of the interesting things this research shows is how much consumers’ attitudes differ by country. People in Asia, for example, are far more likely than westerners to expect food companies to help them eat healthily. Consumers also differ on who they trust. The lesson for manufacturers and marketers of food products is to thoroughly understand all your markets – what works in one won’t necessarily work in another,” says Neil Cary, Managing Director of Survey Goo, the company that conducted the research.