New research from Bord Bia highlights Irish consumers’ changing behaviours and attitudes towards grocery shopping and meal preparation. Since 2001, Bord Bia’s biennial PERIscope study has been exploring consumer attitudes towards topics such as eating at home, cooking, local food, the environment, and health and wellbeing, in ten markets – Ireland and Great Britain, six Continental European markets, along with the US and New Zealand – encompassing 10,000 respondents.
New research from Bord Bia highlights Irish consumers’ changing behaviours and attitudes towards grocery shopping and meal preparation. Since 2001, Bord Bia’s biennial PERIscope study has been exploring consumer attitudes towards topics such as eating at home, cooking, local food, the environment, and health and wellbeing, in ten markets – Ireland and Great Britain, six Continental European markets, along with the US and New Zealand – encompassing 10,000 respondents.
According to PERIscope 2013, 81% of cash-savvy consumers look for the best value for money, which is up from 71% in 2005. We are also health conscious, with three-quarters of us ensuring we consume at least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables every day. There is an emergence away from focusing on convenience to moving towards family and food experiences where home cooking is a catalyst that brings people together. While consumers are looking for solutions to help make cooking easier, the use of convenience foods as a whole has declined from 62% to 48% since 2005.
Five key themes have emerged from the study:
A Foodie World
Consumers are increasingly interested in cooking and find greater enjoyment in preparing meals. More meals are being made from scratch.
· 70% of Irish respondents enjoy being able to cook a great meal (up from 57% in 2005) and 15% of us consider food to be a passion. New Zealanders, Germans and Spanish people get the biggest kick out of creating great food
· More people in Ireland than Great Britain make meals from scratch – 67% of us ‘scratch cook’ several times per week (up from just 56% in 2005) compared to 64% in Great Britain
· We are growing in confidence in the kitchen! Almost 60% of us have a ‘high’ level of confidence when it comes to cooking – up from 46% in 2005. Sweden has the most confident cooks at 80%
· 1 in 4 of us (27%) entertains at home more often. The biggest entertainers are the Dutch at 80%
Back to Basics
There is growing interest in where the food we consume comes from, country of origin labelling and eating with family at mealtimes
- 70% of us think it is important to ‘buy local’ – up from 50% in 2005. Only France rates higher than Ireland, on 73%
- 77% of us check products for a Country of Origin label before we purchase compared to just 58% in Great Britain, which is the least likely of all countries to check for such labels
- Three quarters of Irish consumers check for quality symbols in Ireland such as Bord Bia’s Quality Mark. In relation to meat specifically, considerably more Irish consumers claim to only buy meat that is fully traceable and to always check the label for the farm name.
- Most Irish people (85%) believe it’s important to spend time over dinner as a family
Food & Sustainability
Overall, there is rising awareness of key terms such as food miles and carbon footprint. However, the environment is currently not the top priority for consumers
- Awareness of food sustainability has grown from 41% in 2009 to 49% in 2013.
- Almost half of those polled in Ireland (49%) are conscious of ‘food miles’ when buying groceries – up from 38% in 2007. Awareness levels in Ireland are ahead of Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands and the US
- A quarter of us (25%) seek out products with low food miles
Shopping Around
Consumers are more price savvy than ever before and are shopping around to get the best value possible
- Price is a key driver when shopping with 64% of Irish consumers looking for price (up from 54% in 2005), while New Zealand ranked the highest at 68%
- 79% of us believe the quality of fresh food is more important than price – higher than any other country surveyed
- Shoppers in Ireland are the least likely to purchase groceries online, with just 9% of us having ever done so. Spain has the highest proportion of online grocery shoppers at 30%
Health & Wellbeing
This continues to be a major consumer trend, with people looking to find a balance between physical and mental wellbeing
- We’re a health conscious nation. Over 85% of us try to limit the amount of fast food we consume while Spanish and Belgian consumers are best when it comes to avoiding junk food
- Three-quarters of us (75%) make sure to get our 5-a-day – up from 57% in 2005. Swedes and Germans are the least convinced this approach should dominate diet
- The majority of Irish respondents (85%) feel they have a healthy diet – up from 79% in 2005. In fact, people in Ireland claim to be the most healthy in the study while Germans claim to be the least healthy
