Given the popularity of chocolate cereal and pork rinds, it’s hard to know exactly what consumers are thinking as they wander down grocery store aisles.
But a trend expert from Toronto says Canadian consumers keep two words in mind when they decide to purchase a particular food – nutrition and natural.
“(About) 73 percent of consumers say nutrition and the list of ingredients has the most positive impact on their purchase decision,” said Marion Chan, owner of TrendSpotter Consulting.
She spoke at the Manitoba Beef Producers annual meeting in Brandon in November.
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“How much more natural can it be than a piece of meat?”
Chan cited food retail research conducted by TNS Global.
The top five considerations for the average Canadian shopper are value, nutrition, natural ingredients, health benefits and food preparation time.
For beef, the top five are freshness, leanness, price, colour and flavour. Only 17 percent of survey respondents said nutrition is a consideration when buying beef.
The public’s failure to equate beef with nutrition indicates a weakness in beef marketing strategies, Chan said.
“Nutrition is at the bottom because (beef producers) aren’t talking to them (consumers) about it.”
Steve Kay, editor and publisher of Cattle Buyers Weekly,said consumers probably make assumptions when they purchase beef.
“They take almost for granted that there’s a nutritional value to beef,” he said. “And they probably don’t realize just what those nutritional values are.”
Chan said producers and beef promotion organizations will need to tout the nutritional and natural qualities of beef to compete with other sources of protein, Chan said.
There is a “health halo” around chicken that has increased poultry consumption over the last few decades.
