Consumer perceptions and preferences | TableDebates

Beef cattle in a field. Photo by Mario Garcia via Unsplash.

Expert commentary by Prof Tim Benton

In this piece, Dr. Tim Benton reflects on the latest report by the FCRN: Grazed and confused?Tim Benton is a Professor of Population Ecology and dean of strategic research initiatives at the University of Leeds. From 2011-16, he was the 'champion' of the UK’s Global Food Security programme, a multi-agency partnership of the UK’s public bodies with interest in the challenges around food. He is currently a Visiting Fellow at Chatham House.

Figure 1: Photo credit: Pete, Project 365 #193: 120713 Ugly Fruit?, Flickr, Creative Commons Licence 2.0

Consumer preferences for suboptimal food products in the supermarket and at home

This paper describes an online choice experiment to understand consumer preferences around best-before dates, appearance, and packaging of food products; the paper specifically studies the demand for discounted ‘suboptimal’ products in the supermarket, and consumers’ willingness to use them in the home.

Photo: Loco Steve, Flickr, Creative commons licence 2.0

The simple menu innovations that can get people to order vegetarian options

This master thesis study from the London School of Economics shows how consumers are 56% less likely to order a plant-based dish when it is labelled vegetarian and categorised in a separate section on menus

Flemish Agriculture and Fisheries Report

This report describes the whole Flemish food system, what the Flemish eat, what attitudes, behaviors and trends play a role and the economic, environmental and social consequences of Flemish food consumption. It analyses the different Flemish food supply chains and indicate the importance of distribution, processing and production and concludes with a set of recommendations.

Growth in US market for organic food

This research from USDA’s Economic Research Service looks at trends in consumer demand for organic food since the 1990s and developments in organic production.

Interactive website by CIAT: The changing global diet

This website published by The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), presents interactive visual information and statistics on how food supplies around the world have changed in the past 50 years.

Sustainable Diets - How Ecological Nutrition Can Transform Consumption and the Food System

This book, by Pamela Mason and Tim Lang, explores what is meant by sustainable diets and why and how this can be made the goal for policymakers as we enter the Anthropocene. We do recommend that you take a look at Tim Lang’s blog-post for the FCRN where he discusses the book’s findings and insights.

Brian, Food choices, Flickr, Creative Commons License 2.0.

Blog: Dietary guidelines don’t work. Here’s how to fix them

In a blog-piece for The Conversation, Duane Mellor (Associate Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Canberra) and Cathy Knight-Agarwal (Clinical Assistant Professor of Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Canberra) argue that it is time to rethink the purpose of dietary guidelines both in terms of content and how people adopt (or ignore) their messages.

IEA Discussion Paper No.82 CHEAP AS CHIPS: Is a healthy diet affordable?

This report from the UK free market think tank Institute of Economic Affairs claims that healthy food is actually cheaper than ‘junk food’. In drawing this conclusion the IEA also states that taxes on unhealthy foods (consumed as they say disproportionately by people with low incomes) is unlikely to be enough to change consumer behaviour and will be regressive - it will hit poorer people the hardest.