Consumer concern and behaviour regarding food and health in Norway

The data revealed that 72% of the consumers were very or rather concerned that the food they eat could be harmful to health, and the heavy emphasis that consumers put on the fat issue and on additives in food.

Abstract

This study was undertaken to answer four questions. How widespread is the interest in health issues related to food among consumers in Norway? What types of food‐related health risks are the consumers concerned about? How is the concern expressed among different groups and subgroups of the population? How is the interest in food and health expressed in terms of food behaviour? The paper is built on results from two nationwide consumer surveys in Norway: one telephone interview including 1,021 persons and one postal questionnaire including 13,857 persons. The data revealed that 72% of the consumers were very or rather concerned that the food they eat could be harmful to health. Contrary to results from some other studies, the majority of the Norwegian consumers (57%) were mostly concerned that the food they eat could contain too much fat. Even though the fat issue attracted most attention, many were also concerned about food additives (39%) and contaminants from environmental pollution (43%). Logistic regression analyses showed that the expression of concern is different in various subgroups of the population, divided according to age, income, education and place of residence, Data on food behaviour confirmed the heavy emphasis that consumers put on the fat issue and on additives in food.