Food and You 2: 2020-2024 trends
Food & You 2 trends: Chapter 7: Food shopping and labelling
This chapter provides an overview of food purchasing online and what respondents look for when they are shopping between Wave 1 (July 2020 to October 2020) and Wave 7 (April 2023 to July 2023).
Introduction
The remit of food labelling is held by multiple bodies, that differ between England, Wales and Northern Ireland (footnote 1).
This chapter provides an overview of food purchasing online and what respondents look for when they are shopping between Wave 1 (July 2020 to October 2020) and Wave 7 (April 2023 to July 2023).
Use of online platforms
Between Wave 3 and Wave 7, there were no notable differences in the percentage of respondents who reported that they had ordered food or drink online through a restaurant’s, café’s or takeaway’s own website, an online ordering and delivering company (e.g. Just Eat, Deliveroo or Uber Eats), online market places (e.g. Amazon, Gumtree, Etsy) or social media (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, Nextdoor) (Figure 41) (footnote 2). However, during this period there was an increase in those reporting use of food sharing apps (e.g. Olio or Too Good to Go) from 4% in Wave 3 (April 2021 to June 2021) to 14% in Wave 7 (April 2023 to July 2023) (Figure 41) (footnote 3).
Figure 41. Where respondents order food or drink online
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Food and You 2: Waves, 3, 5 and 7
What do respondents report checking when buying food?
Between Wave 1 (July 2020 to October 2020) and Wave 3 (April 2021 to June 2021), there was a slight increase in the percentage of respondents who reported they check (always or most of the time) use-by dates (from 80% to 84%) best-before dates (from 78% to 82%), list of ingredients (from 30% to 35%), allergen information (from 19% to 25%) and nutritional information (from 35% to 39%) when shopping for food**. Since Wave 3, these figures have remained broadly stable. Checking for country of origin remained stable in most waves (20%-22%), except for a slight increase** in Wave 3 (25%). There were no notable differences when checking for food assurance scheme logos during this period (footnote 4) (Figure 42).
Figure 42. What respondents check when food shopping (always/most of the time responses combined).
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Food and You 2: Waves, 1, 3, 5 and 7
The importance of animal welfare, provenance and environmental impact when buying food
Following a period of stability between Wave 1 and 5, there was a slight decrease in the percentage of respondents reporting that it is important to buy meat, eggs and dairy which are produced with high standards of animal welfare, from 90% in Wave 5 (April 2022 to July 2022) to 85% in Wave 7 (April 2023 to July 2023)**.
During the same period, there was a notable decrease in the percentage of respondents reporting that it is important to buy food which has a low environmental impact, from 84% in Wave 5 to 74% in Wave 7 (Figure 43) (footnote 5).
Figure 43. What factors are important to respondents when shopping.
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Food and You 2: Waves 1, 3, 5 and 7
Between Wave 1 (July 2020 to October 2020) and Wave 7 (April 2023 to July 2023) there was a decrease in the percentage of respondents who reported that, where possible, they always or most of the time: buy food produced in Britain (from 67% in Wave 1 to 51% in Wave 7); buy food which has a low environmental impact (from 49% in Wave 1 to 36% in Wave 7); and buy meat, eggs and dairy which has information on animal welfare either always or most of the time (from 65% Wave 1 to 57% in Wave 7)** (Figure 44) (footnote 6).
Figure 44. The percentage of respondents who, always or most of the time, buy food with a certain a provenance, animal welfare or environmental impact.
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Food and You 2: Waves 1, 3, 5 and 7
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Nutrition standards and nutrition food labelling is the remit of the Department of Health and Social care in England and the Welsh Government in Wales.
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Question: Have you ever ordered food or drink online through a restaurant’s, café’s or takeaway’s own website? Responses: yes, no. Total base across waves 3, 5, 7= 11,984 (range between 3,617 in Wave 7 and 4,326 in Wave 3), all online respondents. Please note: this question was not included in Waves 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8.
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Question: Have you ever ordered food or drink online through a restaurant’s, café’s or takeaway’s own website? Responses: yes, no. Total base across waves 3, 5, 7= 11,984 (range between 3,617 in Wave 7 and 4,041 in Wave 5), all online respondents. Please note: this question was not included in Waves 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8.
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Question: When shopping for food, how often, if at all, do you check…? a) use-by dates. b) best-before dates. c) list of ingredients. d) allergen information. e) Nutritional information. f) country of origin. g) food assurance scheme logos. Responses: always, most of the time, about half of the time, occasionally, never, don’t know. Total base across waves 1, 3, 5, 7= 16,727 (range between 3,394 in Wave 7 and 5,548 in Wave 1), all online respondents who ever do food shopping. Please note: this question was not included in Wave 2, Wave 4, Wave 6 or Wave 8.
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Question: How important is it to you…a) to support British [if Northern Ireland: UK and Irish] farmers and food producers. b) to buy meat, eggs and dairy which are produced with high standards of animal welfare. c) to buy food which has a low environmental impact. Responses: very important, somewhat important, not very important, not at all important, don't know. Total base across Waves = 26,962 (range between 5,157 in Wave 7 and 9,319 in Wave 1), all online respondents, and those answering the relevant postal questionnaire. Please note: this question was not included in Waves 2, 4, 6 or 8 and option a) to support British [if Northern Ireland: UK and Irish] farmers and food producer, was not included from wave 7 onwards.
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Question: How often do you do the following, where possible? a) buy food produced in Britain [If Northern Ireland: ‘the UK and Ireland’]? b) buy meat, eggs and dairy which has information on animal welfare. c) buy food which has a low environmental impact. Responses: always, most of the time, about half the time, occasionally, never, don't know. Total base across Waves = 26,962 (range between 5,157 in Wave 7 and 9,319 in Wave 1), all online respondents, and those answering the relevant postal questionnaire. Please note: this question was not included in Waves 2, 4,6 or 8.