Consumer Attitudes to Food Safety - UK

Published by: Mintel International Group Ltd.

Published: Nov. 1, 2007

Table of Contents

Issues in the Market

Definitions

Market in Brief

Media raising awareness

A resilient UK consumer

The establishment of the FSA

Who are concerned?

Compensation culture is driving greater transparency

Internal Market Environment

Key Points

Rise in consumer complaints

Media driving consumer empowerment

Figure 1: Adults aged 15+ who have satellite, cable or digital TV channels at home, 2002-06

Figure 2: Adults aged 15+ who have a broadband connection at home, 2003-06

Consolidating industry

Broader Market Environment

Key Points

Food choices

Do you get what you pay for?

Figure 3: Agreement with selected lifestyle statements, 2002-06

Moving beyond nutritional quality

Figure 4: Agreement with selected lifestyle statements, 2002-06

Demographic changes

Key Points

Older and wiser?

Figure 5: Changes in the UK demographic profile, by age, 2002-07 and 2007-12

Food issues

AB socio-economic status growing

Figure 6: Changes in socio-economic status, 2002-07 and 2007-12

Food Incidents Size - The Extent

Key Points

Reporting food incidents

But is it an accurate picture?

The type of incidents

Figure 7: Food incident, by category, 2006

The FSA’s response

Figure 8: Alert classifications, 2000-07

Figure 9: Alert clasifications, 2000-04

Allergens - a different procedure

Food Incidents

Key Points

Avian Flu

Christmas 2007

Market effect

BSE

Foot-and-mouth

Salmonella (Cadbury’s)

Sudan 1

Industry Structure

Key Points

Protecting the consumer

Health Protection Agency (HPA)

The costs of product withdrawal

The sting in the tail

The Consumer 1 - Food Incidents and Safety

Key Points

Seeking reassurance in the wrong places?

Figure 10: Have you stopped buying/eating a food product, June-July 2007

Figure 11: Propensity to avoid a food after a food incident, by gender, socio-economic group, media usage and presence of children, June-July 2007

One in ten won’t do it again

Figure 12: Approximately how long was it before you bought/ate it again, June-July 2007

Communication is crucial

Consumer food safety confidence is quite high…

Figure 13: Confidence rating of UK food safety, June-July 2007

…and belief remains strong despite food incident history

Figure 14: Confidence in UK food saftey, by whether or not they have stopped eating or buying a food product because of a food incident (col %), June-July 2007

The Consumer 2 - Winning Confidence - Food Safety Measures

Key Points

Figure 15: Measures that would give more confidence in food safety, June-July 2007

Honesty - evolving corporate values?

The rejection of big business is media-fuelled…

Gender tactics

Figure 16: Measures that would give more confidence in food safety, by gender, June-July 2007

Kids affect parental concerns

Improving hygiene lies with individuals

Figure 17: Measures that should be undertaken to improve food saftey, by levels of confidence in UK food safety (col %), June-July 2007

Greater media exposure drives more consumers’ scepticism

Appendix

Abbreviations

Internal market environment

Figure 19: Adults aged 15+ who have satellite, cable or digital TV channels at home, 2002-06

Figure 20: Adults aged 15+ who have satellite, cable or digital TV channels at home, by gender, age, socio-economic group, marital status, lifestage, presence of children, Mintel’s Special Groups, working status, tenure, region, ACORN category, media usage, household size and car usage, 2006

Figure 21: Adults aged 15+ who have a broadband connection at home, 2003-06

Figure 22: Adults aged 15+ who have a broadband connection at home, by gender, age, socio-economic group, marital status, lifestage, presence of children, Mintel’s Special Groups, working status, tenure, region, ACORN category, media usage, household size and car usage, 2006

Consumer - TGI - Scientific versus lifestyle health

Figure 23: Agreement with selected lifestyle statements, by gender, age, socio-economic group, marital status, lifestage, presence of children, Mintel’s Special Groups, working status, tenure, region, ACORN category, media usage, household size and car usage, 2006

Figure 24: Agreement with selected lifestyle statements, by gender, age, socio-economic group, marital status, lifestage, presence of children, Mintel’s Special Groups, working status, tenure, region, ACORN category, media usage, household size and car usage, 2006

Figure 25: Agreement with selected lifestyle statements, by gender, age, socio-economic group, marital status, lifestage, presence of children, Mintel’s Special Groups, working status, tenure, region, ACORN category, media usage, household size and car usage, 2006

Figure 26: Agreement with selected lifestyle statements, by gender, age, socio-economic group, marital status, lifestage, presence of children, Mintel’s Special Groups, working status, tenure, region, ACORN category, media usage, household size and car usage, 2006

Figure 27: Agreement with selected lifestyle statements, by gender, age, socio-economic group, marital status, lifestage, presence of children, Mintel’s Special Groups, working status, tenure, region, ACORN category, media usage, household size and car usage, 2006

The Consumer - Food incidents and safety

Stopped eating

Figure 28: Have you stopped buying/eating a food product after a food incident, by gender, age, region, socio-economic group, daily and Sunday newspaper readership, household income, presence of children, Internet usage, supermarket usage and TV reception, June -July 2007

Figure 29: length of time taken to return to eating a product, June-July 2007

Figure 30: length of time taken to return to eating a product, by gender, age, region, socio-economic group, daily and Sunday newspaper readership, household income, presence of children, Internet usage, supermarket usage and TV reception, June-July 2007

Confidence in food safety

Figure 31: Confidence rating of UK food safety, 2007

Figure 32: Confidence rating of UK food safety, by gender, age, region, socio-economic group, daily and Sunday newspaper readership, household income, presence of children, Internet usage, supermarket usage and TV reception, 2007

Figure 33: measures to give more confidenece in food safety, by gender, age, region, socio-economic group, daily and Sunday newspaper readership, household income, presence of children, Internet usage, supermarket usage and TV reception, June-July 2007

Figure 34: Measures that would have given more confidence in food safety, by gender, age, region, socio-economic group, daily and Sunday newspaper readership, household income, presence of children, Internet usage, supermarket usage and TV reception, June-July 2007

Figure 35: Number of different measure that would give more confidence in food safety, by gender, age, region, socio-economic group, newspaper readership, household income, presence of children, commercial TV viewing, supermarket usage and TV reception, (row %), June-July 2007

Figure 36: Number of different measures that would give more confidence in food safety, by confidence rating in UK food safety (col %), June-July 2007

Figure 37: Number of different measures that would give more confidence in food safety, by types of measures that would add confidence in UK food safety (col %), June-July 2007

The Consumer - Identifying consumer typologies

Figure 38: Food incidents typologies, by gender, age, region, socio-economic group, newspaper readership, household income, presence of children, commercial TV viewing, supermarket usage and TV reception (row %), June-July 2007

Figure 39: Food incidents typologies, by types of products typically bought whilst shopping (col %), June-July 2007

Figure 40: Food incidents typologies, by behaviour regarding shopping for premium foods (col %), June-July 2007

Figure 41: Food incidents typologies, by behaviour regarding shopping for economy/budget foods (col %), June-July 2007

Figure 42: Food incidents typologies, by how often consumers buy different kinds of premium foods (col %), June-July 2007

Figure 43: Food incidents typologies, by attitudes towards grocery shopping (col %), June-July 2007

Figure 44: Food incidents typologies, by confidence rating in a food incident (col %), June-July 2007

Figure 45: Food incidents typologies, by food avoidance in a food incident (col %), June-July 2007

Figure 46: Food incidents typologies, by approximate length of food avoidance in a food incident (col %), June-July 2007

Cluster components

Figure 47: Food incidents typologies, by attitudes towards food incidents, June-July 2007 (col %)

Figure 48: Food incidents typologies, by types and number of types of measures that would add confidence in a food incident, June-July 2007 (col %)

Abstract

The issue of food safety is one that attracts significant media attention, and is one that is now tightly regulated to protect consumers.

Key themes explored in this report Mintel include:

the role of the media in raising consumer awareness; food safety and food regulation; the extent and impact of specific food incidents.

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