Consumers moving away from convenience
At its recent annual trade day in Dublin, Bord Bia released its latest research revealing Irish consumer's new found love of scratch cooking
Print17 November 2009
Bord Bia’s latest biennial study of consumer behaviour and food trends in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and UK, Periscope 5, has revealed that consumers are increasingly moving away from convenience in the kitchen and are spending more time eating at home.
The findings were presented at the food board’s annual food and drink industry day, at the IMI Conference Centre in Dublin on 5 November.
According to the research, carried out on 3,000 adults by TNS mrbi, 88% in ROI think it’s important to spend time over dinner as a family, up 5% since 2005. The trend is increasing across weekdays and weekend, with the greatest increase taking place on Saturday. In addition, the family breakfast occasion is also increasing in Ireland, with 44% saying they sit down to eat breakfast together every morning.
In the kitchen, the number of people interested in/passionate about cooking has increased 12% since 2005, and 9% of the population has attended a cookery class in the last three years. Cooking from scratch has become more common and competence in the kitchen has also increased; one in two is confident they could cook a full roast dinner and 25% would be happy to host a dinner party cooking all the food. These were mostly AB consumers.
On in five said however, that they would purchase a meal deal when preparing a special dining occasion at home.
Healthy eating continues to be important to Irish consumers, almost 80% perceiving their diets to be fairly healthy or very healthy. Furthermore, eight out of 10 say they always buy ‘natural’ and they limit unhealthy foods. Many however, are confused about the heath status of certain foods, particulary carbohydrates, dairy and meat, and feel there is no clear definition of ‘fresh’ or ‘natural.’ Better labelling is thought to be the solution.
Trust and quality are also important, seeing interest in quality symbols rise 20% between 2001 and 2009, and interest in origin increasing 70%.
In other trends, men are becoming more involved in grocery shopping (33% are main shoppers) and less than half of all shoppers agree that price is most important.
Full details of the research can be found at www.bordbia.ie.
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