Food in Scotland consumer tracker - wave 19 report

Published by:

  • Food Standards Scotland

Content guide

Issues of concern

Consumer concerns

To understand what consumers are worried about at the moment, we asked them to look at a list of food related issues and let us know if these concern them.

Ranking of concerns

Key points of concern this were in line with Wave 18. Food prices, food poverty and food inequality and ultra-processed food continue to be the top three issues of most concern; however, ultra-processed food has increased to 81% from 78% in Wave 18.

  • concern was high across all aspects among those who said they’d been worried about being able to afford food in the last year
  • concern about food prices and food poverty remain the same as W18
  • concern about the safety of food produced in the UK was lower than concern with the other aspects and has declined since W18 (57%)
  • concern was also lower in W19 than in W18 in relation to animal welfare (76% W18) and food availability/shortages (62% W18)
  • Concern was higher this wave around the healthiness of people’s diets (72% W18) and GM foods (67% W18) compared to W18

Here is a visual only interactive chart of: The main issue of concern for consumers are food prices, ultra processed foods, and food poverty and inequality.

Please find more information provided in the detailed description and/or table below.

Concern 
Food prices90%
Ultra processed, or over processing of food81%
Food poverty and food inequality80%
The 'healthiness' of people's diets in general75%
The safety of food imported from outside the UK74%
Animal welfare in the food industry73%
The quality of food imported from outside the UK73%
Genetically modified (GM) food70%
The information on food labels being accurate59%
Food availability/food shortages58%
The quality of food produced in the UK54%
The safety of food produced in the UK52%

Demographic differences

Levels of concern about food prices are quite similar across different demographics, but concern about food prices is higher for women (92%) than men (87%).

Concern with food poverty is higher for women (86%) than men (75%) and for social class DEs (85%), and lower for 65+ year olds (76%) than younger age groups (82%).

References:

  1. Thinking about food in the UK in general. At the moment, how concerned, if at all, do you feel about each of the following topics? Base (all): 1,009

Did you find this helpful? We would love to hear from you.
Thank you for your feedback!

If you like you can share this page with others: