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14 June 2006
Australia
Consumers around the world view out-of-home dining as an essential enabler of everyday life, however, they link take-away food with unhealthy eating habits and see it as a contributor to overweight and obesity issues, a global qualitative study by leading research company ACNielsen has found.
The ACNielsen study, titled ACNielsen | LifeChoices, looked at out-of-home eating and drinking behaviours, and the impact of health concerns on choice of outlet. The study focused on women specifically, given the role women play in feeding their families, and their general awareness of and responsiveness to health messages.
Consumers who participated in the study indicated that out-of-home eating and drinking were an essential part of modern life as people lose the skills or inclination to cook at home on a regular basis. However, there was a perception amongst study participants that food bought outside the home was unhealthy, and this perception was likely to limit growth in the industry. Generally, health concerns along with cost, were the two most common barriers to growth in frequency of out-of-home eating and drinking.
Western fast food, soft drink and snack manufacturers were especially vulnerable to loss of sales and share as a result of consumers’ increasing concern around weight gain. Study participants saw decreasing or cutting out their intake of Western style foods and drinks as an easy-to-implement yet highly effective strategy in addressing weight gain concerns.
“Out-of-home dining has become ingrained in our society,” says Nicole Torkar, Executive Director, ACNielsen. “However, consumers believe the change to eating more fast food, soft drinks, and snacks is causing people to gain weight. In particular, people associate weight gain with Western fast food, while they felt Asian and other ethnic foods were healthier choices and less likely to lead to obesity.”
The study identified that there was a lot of confusion amongst consumers caused by an overload of information on the latest diet fads and distinguishing between fad diets and genuine information on healthy eating. Ever-changing body health monitoring systems such as low GI, carbs, calories and Weight Watchers points only added to this confusion, and many consumers subscribed to some fairly common myths around preventing weight gain (see table 1).
“With the amount of confusion in the marketplace about what constitutes a healthy meal there is a real opportunity for fast-food outlets to raise awareness of the nutritional values of their meals,” says Torkar. “This type of communication would go a long way to addressing uncertainty and mis-information around take-away foods and would particularly benefit Western style outlets, where it appears the most negative assumptions are held.”
Table 1:
Common myths around out-of-home food and drink consumption
Eat in a balanced way to prevent weight gain:
- Weight gain is attributed to eating the wrong kinds of foods rather than an imbalance in calories – consumers focused on composition and kinds of foods, whilst ignoring amounts and frequencies.
- Consumers believe a balanced diet can be achieved by balancing unhealthy out-of-home eating with healthier at-home consumption or by balancing a period of heavy eating with a period of light eating.
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Asian fast foods are less likely to cause weight gain than western fast foods:
- It was very common for consumers to associate weight gain with Western fast foods more than Asian fast foods. Many consumers displayed a lack of knowledge around calorie values for Western vs Asian fast foods.
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Skipping meals can help lose weight:
- Consumers indicated that they believed skipping meals would assist in weight loss.
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Freshness is a good indicator for low energy – if it is processed it is more likely to lead to weight gain:
- There is a perception that foods which are fresh and unprocessed are less likely to result in weight gain, which leads to confusion about what foods really cause weight gain.
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About ACNielsen | LifeChoices
ACNielsen | LifeChoices is a 21 country qualitative study which provides unparalleled insight for marketers interested in the broader dynamics of out-of-home food and drinks choice today, and in the context of obesity. The study allows clients to ‘zoom-out’ for a bigger picture of out-of-home consumption behaviour. For further information click here to download a PDF of the report summary.
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