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November 10 2008
Hong Kong
Two in three (66%) global online consumers say they take more notice of packaged goods labels containing nutritional information compared to two years ago but less than half (44%) claim to mostly understand what they’re reading – according to findings from an Internet survey on Food Labeling and Nutrition conducted in 51 countries, released today by The Nielsen Company.
According to the Nielsen survey, in Asia Pacific, 68 percent of consumers said they take more notice of the nutritional information on packaging more now than two years ago and a similar percentage applies to Hong Kong, 67 percent of Hong Kong consumers said they take more notice of the food labels these days, although one-fifth claimed to “always” check the nutritional information on the package, with little improvement from two years ago.
“Our survey findings clearly demonstrate the degree to which health and diet have taken a pivotal role in our lifestyles. The need for clear and educational labeling has become one of the most debated and controversial topics in recent few years, and the need has become even stronger amidst the occasional food scares,” said Ms Angel Young, Executive Director, The Nielsen Company Hong Kong.
Consumers in Asia Pacific have quickly caught up with the global food labeling trend in the past three years. In 2005, 21 percent said they will always check the nutritional information on the package when they buy packaged food, compared to 25 percent this time round. In the 2008 survey, 34 percent of Asians said they checked nutritional information when they are thinking of buying a product for the first time and 27 percent said they checked when buying certain types of food.
In Hong Kong, 26 percent of people said that they checked the nutritional information when buying certain types of food. A bigger difference is recognized compared to Asia Pacific average with only 25 percent of Hong Kong people saying that they checked nutritional information when they are buying a product for the first time.
“The development of supermarkets and the modern trade in emerging markets in the last 10 years has brought a plethora of new packaged products to consumers, “ said Ms Young. “As such, nutritional information on packaging is important in educating shoppers on what they are buying and eating. It is surprising to see consumers paying less attention to the nutritional information of a product that they buy for the first time.”
Consumers are interested in the nutritional content of the foods they buy, with food manufacturers’ effort to provide more information is one thing, understanding the labels is something else altogether. Globally, less than half of consumers - and less than a third in Asia Pacific - say they understand the nutritional information on food packaging. The majority shows partial understanding of food labels. Hong Kong has very extreme findings in where only nine percent of consumers said they mostly understand the food labels with the majority, (86%) of them revealed that they only understand the labels partially.
India, Australia and New Zealand are home to the most ‘conversant’ consumers in the region, with over half claiming to mostly understand food labels.
Despite their geographic distance, the Nielsen survey revealed that French and Japanese consumers share strikingly similar attitudes towards nutritional information and labeling. Japan (18%) and France (16%) top global rankings for claiming they never check nutritional information on packaged goods and both also featured in the top 10 global rankings for not understanding food labeling at all. “Most Japanese tend to worry a lot about what countries the foods come from and pay more attention to totalcalorie intake, balance of vitamin andmineralsetc, in order to control their weight," Ms Young continues. “These two also share a food culture based predominantly on fresh and natural products with far less emphasis on processed and fast foods.” In Hong Kong, as people are getting more health-conscious and that only eight percent of consumers claiming that they never check food labels and only 5% of consumers saying that they don’t understand the information stated on the food labels at all.
Preservatives, Additives and Colouring: the three big “look-outs” for Asian consumers
Globally, it’s the fat content that drives nearly half of all consumers to check the labels on food packaging. 47 percent say they check food labels for fat, followed by calories (44%) and preservatives (42%). Interestingly, checking for preservatives has overtaken sugar (40%), indicating a shift in consumers’ concern from sugar to preservatives. This resonates with findings from another global survey conducted in 2007 by Nielsen on functional foods - according to a global Nielsen organic and functional food survey conducted in 2007, two in five (38%) global consumers considered a product with full sugar but no artificial flavours/ colours/ additives to be healthier than a product reduced in calories but with artificial substitutes.
In Asia Pacific, consumer concern about Preservatives (51%) in food remains consistent with three years ago, while Additives have overtaken Fat Content as the second biggest reason for checking nutritional labels. Over four in 10 say they check food labels for each of Coloring, Fat and Calories. While in Hong Kong, a different scenario is observed - over half of Hong Kong consumers check food labels for Fat (58%), followed by Calories (53%) and Sugar (47%), showing that Hong Kong consumers are more concerned about having a “healthy” diet.
“In the past five years there has been unprecedented coverage of health, diet and lifestyle issues in every kind of media. Never before have consumers been so obsessed with healthy living, and savvy marketers have realized that adding an element of “healthiness” to any product is fundamental to sales success,” Ms Young added.
About The Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey
The Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey, conducted by Nielsen Customized Research, was conducted in April 2008 among 28,250 internet users in 51 markets from Europe, Asia Pacific, North America and the Middle East. The largest half-yearly survey of its kind, the Nielsen Global Online Consumer Confidence and Opinion Survey provides insight into current confidence levels, spending habits/intentions and the major concerns of consumers across the globe.
About The Nielsen Company
The Nielsen Company is a global information and media company with leading market positions in marketing information, media information, online intelligence, mobile measurement, trade shows and business publications (Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Adweek). The privately held company is active in more than 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA. For more information, please visit, www.nielsen.com
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