90% of consumers believe food companies are responsible for healthy diets
In a survey of more than 1,000 consumers worldwide conducted for Ingredient Communications, nine out of 10 consumers responded that they believe food companies have a responsibility to make sure their diet is healthy.
In a survey of more than 1,000 consumers worldwide conducted for Ingredient Communications, nine out of 10 consumers responded that they believe food companies have a responsibility to make sure their diet is healthy. When asked how much responsibility they believed food and drink companies have for ensuring they eat a healthy diet, 52% of consumers said they had a lot and a further 37% said they had some. Only 9% of consumers thought food and drink 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 10 (68%) said food companies had a lot of responsibility for ensuring they had a healthy diet, compared with four in 10 (39%) of the westerners surveyed.
However, the survey also revealed that levels of trust in the food industry are relatively low compared with other sources of information about health and nutrition. Respondents were presented with seven different sources of information about health and nutrition and asked to list them in order of trustworthiness. Globally, doctors and other healthcare professionals were the most trusted, with 72% 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%) and friends and family (15%).
Food and beverage companies came low on the list. Four in 10 respondents (41%) placed them in either last or in second-to-last place, and only 5% put them at the top. The list also included celebrity chefs, celebrities (non-chefs), and journalists and bloggers.
Trust in food and beverage companies appears to be highest in the United States, where 14% 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% doing so.
“Our research makes clear the scale of the challenge facing the food industry,” said Richard Clarke, director of Ingredient Communications. “On the one hand, consumers expect food and drink manufacturers to demonstrate a commitment to helping them to eat healthily. 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.”