Recently, Interstate Bakeries Corp, the biggest wholesale baker in the US, filed for bankruptcy protection. And what pushed the 77-year-old company over the edge? Management cited a drop in sales, partly due to the growing popularity of low-carbohydrate diets.

Clearly, food trends can have a massive impact on business. Hungry for information about current attitudes to food and fitness, Synovate quizzed more than 2,500 people in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. A taste of what we learned appears below.


Meaty figures

Among other questions, interviewees were asked how much they agree or disagree with the statement: "We need to change our eating habits as a nation in order to lower levels of obesity".

The results were convincing. An overall 91% of respondents either strongly agreed or somewhat agreed with the statement. All three nations were in equal agreement on this point, revealing that obesity was almost universally seen as a serious problem.


Fat chance

It's one thing recognising a weight problem, quite another doing something about it. Lots of people try. We asked interviewees whether they had gone on a particular diet in order to eat healthier or lose weight at any time in the previous two years. Overall, 58% replied "yes". Brits claim to be the most dedicated dieters, with 68% replying in the affirmative. Then came Canada (57.3%) and the US (52.8%).

The table below breaks these figures down into what those diet changers did:


  Total Canada UK US
Spend more time buying and preparing food 47% 46% 52% 44%
Go out of the way to stick to the diet 39% 39% 37% 40%
Spend more money to get the right food 35% 33% 36% 35%
Purchase food that was specially produced for particular eating plan 27% 25% 24% 30%
Go to a special store to pick up the right kind of food because it was the only place that had it 8% 8% 7% 8%
None of these 15% 17% 10% 16%



Starved for choice

The table is quite revealing. First, let's assume that the 15% who said "none of these" simply ate less (obviously the most effective way to lose weight). Therefore, almost 50% of respondents were prepared to spend more money or time, or purchase special food to follow their diets. That's a huge segment of the population and lends credibility to Interstate Bakeries' claims.


Packaged poison?

"It would be easier to be healthy if food companies made healthy products that also saved time." A remarkable 79% of respondents strongly or somewhat agreed with that statement. That incredibly negative response ought to terrify the entrenched food brands. It implies most consumers believe food companies don't make healthy products. It also suggests there's a vast unfulfilled gap in the market promising both threat, and opportunity.


Chomp

The overriding priorities of the food industry in the latter half of the previous century have been to provide good taste and low price. As the critical levels of obesity confirm, they've succeeded only too well. It's hard not to conclude that any food producer able to add convenience and low cost to the growing consumer demand of healthiness can almost certainly take a big bite out of the market.



Thank you for reading Synovate In:fact. The findings are taken from a Synovate Global Omnibus research survey of 2,583 qualified individuals

Synovate's Global Omnibus unites the world's best omnibus services in the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, providing access to CATI telephone, Internet and face-to-face omnibus methodologies in 53 countries worldwide.

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