What are consumers most concerned about in terms of health and nutrition?

The United Soybean Board (USB) put that question at the forefront of its 14th annual nationwide survey. The St. Louis-based organization hired an external research firm to randomly distribute online surveys to 1,000 Americans. The findings were then published in, “Consumer Attitudes about Nutrition — Insights into Nutrition, Health & Soyfoods.” Among these findings, USB officials discovered that …

… Nine out of 10 consumers are concerned about the nutritional content of the food they eat;

… More than one-third of consumers are “very concerned” about nutritional content in their food;

… More than three-quarters of consumers changed eating habits in the past three to five years because of health concerns;

… Sixty percent of consumers were willing to pay more for healthy or healthier versions of foods — an increase of 13 percent over 2006 responses;

… Fifty-four percent of consumers agreed with the statement, “Information about health and nutrition is too confusing.”

… Almost half of consumers (45 percent) would be very unlikely to purchase foods that listed trans fats on the label. This is increase from 38 percent who said the same in 2006;

… Sixty-five percent of consumers would be more likely to buy a product that they currently enjoy if the processor reformulated it to have zero grams trans fat listed on the product label.

Source: The United Soybean Board