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29 Sep 2008
Jakarta
Two in three (66%) global online consumers say they take notice of packaged goods labels containing nutritional information compared to two years ago but less than half of consumers (44%) claim to mostly understand what they’re reading – according to findings from an Internet survey on Food Labeling and Nutrition conducted in 51 countries, released by The Nielsen Company.
According to the Nielsen survey, one in five (24%) global consumers said they always check nutritional info when buying packaged goods and more will do so when they are thinking about buying a product for the first time. In Asia Pacific, 68 percent of consumers say they take notice of the nutritional information on packaging more now than two years ago.
“Our survey findings clearly demonstrate the degree to which health and diet have taken a pivotal role in our lifestyles,” said Catherine Eddy, Executive Director, Consumer Research, Indonesia. “The need for clear and educational labeling has become one of the most debated and controversial topics in recent few years and the pressure is on the food industry to take greater responsibility for educating people about what they’re eating,” said Catherine.
North Americans lead the race in understanding food labeling. 67 percent of North American consumers claim to mostly understand food labels. For many shoppers in North America, scanning food labels on packaged goods when shopping appears to be second nature, and for savvy food manufacturers, nutritional labeling has become a powerful marketing tool.
Consumers in Asia Pacific have quickly caught up with the global food labeling trend in the past three years. In 2005, 21 percent said they will always check the nutritional information on the package when they buy packaged food, compared to 25 percent this time round. In the 2008 survey, 34 percent of Asians said they checked nutritional information when they’re thinking of buying a product for the first time and 27 percent said they checked when buying certain types of food.
“The development of supermarkets and the modern trade in emerging markets in the last 10 years has brought a plethora of new packaged products to consumers. As such, nutritional information on packaging serves to educate shoppers on what they are buying and eating,” said Catherine.
Trying to lose weight seems to be a key motivation for consumers to check the nutritional labels, especially for Australians (24%) and Kiwis (20%) in Asia Pacific. Interestingly across Asia Pacific, only one in 10 said they would check food labels when they are buying for their children.
Despite their geographic distance, the Nielsen survey revealed that French and Japanese consumers share strikingly similar attitudes towards nutritional information and labeling. Japan (18%) and France (16%) top global rankings for claiming they never check nutritional information on packaged goods and both also featured in the top 10 global rankings for not understanding food labeling at all. The Japanese take their dismissal of nutritional information and labeling a step further – Japan also topped global rankings for never checking fat, trans fat, protein, sugar and carbohydrates. “Most Japanese tend to worry a lot about what countries the foods come from and pay more attention to totalcalorie intake, balance of vitamin andmineralsetc, in order to control their weight," Catherine continues. “Interestingly, these two nations rank at the bottom of global obesity charts and both countries share a food culture based predominantly on fresh and natural products with far less emphasis on processed and fast foods.”
Across the region, seven percent of consumers in Asia Pacific said they never check the nutritional labels on the package, showing little improvement from three years ago when the same survey was conducted.
Consumers interested in the nutritional content of the foods they buy, and food manufacturers’ effort to provide more information is one thing. Understanding the labels is something else altogether. Globally, less than half of consumers - and less than a third in Asia Pacific - say they mostly understand the nutritional information on food packaging. The majority shows partial understanding of food labels. India, Australia and New Zealand are home to the most ‘conversant’ consumers in the region, with over half claiming to mostly understand food labels.
Fat, Calories and Preservatives: the three big “look-outs” for global consumers
Globally, it’s the fat content that drives nearly half of all consumers to check the labels on food packaging. 47 percent say they check food labels for fat, followed by calories (44%) and preservatives (42%). Interestingly, checking for preservatives has overtaken sugar (40%), indicating a shift in consumers’ concern from sugar to preservatives. This resonates with findings from another global survey conducted in 2007 by Nielsen on functional foods - according to a global Nielsen organic and functional food survey conducted in 2007, two in five (38%) global consumers considered a product with full sugar but no artificial flavours/ colours/ additives to be healthier than a product reduced in calories but with artificial substitutes. According to Nielsen LabelTrends, in the US, products which advertise ‘all natural’ ingredients are worth US$21.3B and grew 12 percent in the past year.
In Asia Pacific, consumer concern about Preservatives (51%) in food remains consistent with three years ago, while Additives have overtaken Fat Content as the second biggest reason for checking nutritional labels. Over four in 10 say they check food labels for each of Coloring, Fat and Calories. It’s worth noting that Indonesians and Thais are more worried about Preservatives, Additives and Coloring than their Asia Pacific counterparts.
“In the past five years there has been unprecedented coverage of health, diet and lifestyle issues in every kind of media. Never before have consumers been so obsessed with healthy living, and savvy marketers have realized that adding an element of “healthiness” to any product is fundamental to sales success,” said Catherine.
Click here to access the PDF report.
About The Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey
The Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey, conducted by Nielsen Customized Research, was conducted in April 2008 among 28,253 internet users in 51 markets from Europe, Asia Pacific, North America and the Middle East. The largest half-yearly survey of its kind, the Nielsen Global Online Consumer Confidence and Opinion Survey provides insight into current confidence levels, spending habits/intentions and the major concerns of consumers across the globe. The Nielsen Consumer Confidence Index is developed based on consumers’ confidence in the job market, status of their personal finances and readiness to spend.
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