Syndian Survey - Views on Natural Foods

Consumers ask for 'Certified Natural' Labelling - Part one

We recently surveyed 69 people to better understand their attitudes towards natural foods.

Our survey, which was promoted through Facebook, Twitter and emails, showed that a vast majority (92.7%) would like to see product labelling which guarantees the product is natural.

When asked to define what ‘natural’ means to them, most respondents were on the same page as us, answering that foods are natural if they have gone through minimal processing and do not contain any additives, preservatives or artificial flavours and colours.

In their answers, some respondents also showed scepticism towards companies which label their products as natural, believing they do it for money making purposes only.

So the introduction of regulated ‘certified natural’ labelling could help consumers make a more informed choice as well as stop dishonest food manufacturers from making false claims.

Because food is an essential element in a person’s wellbeing, our philosophy here at Syndian is to offer natural, healthy and tasty products that can be enjoyed not only by people with special dietary requirements, but by everyone.

Hearing that consumers are concerned about what goes into their food and, in that sense, share similar values and concerns to us is great news.

Another finding from the survey was that, although the inclusion of natural ingredients is important when deciding what food products to buy, it came second (37.7%) after taste (40.6%).

While this was a small scale survey and a number of respondents regularly eat our products or are health conscious, similar large scale surveys (such as Jalna’s Australian food attitudes survey) presented similar results.

Disclaimer: While this survey only captured the opinions of a very small group of people, we found the results interesting and therefore we wanted to share them with you. We would welcome similar research to be completed on a larger scale.

Below are the full survey results and stay tuned for part two which discusses people’s answers to how they define the word natural.

Do you eat natural?

1. When you are buying food products, what influences your purchase most?

2. Price: 21.7%

3. Natural ingredients: 37.7%

4. Taste (what you know or think it will taste like): 40.6%

5. Packaging: 0%

6. Do you read the ingredients label before buying a food product?

7. Always: 24.6%

8. More often than not: 36.2%

9. Occasionally: 36.2%

10. Never: 2.9%

11. Do you understand what the ingredients listed on food labels mean?

12. Yes, I understand most ingredients including numbers, preservatives, etc: 56.5%

13. I only understand the common ingredients (e.g. pumpkin, milk, oil): 40.6%

14. I don’t look at the ingredient labels: 2.9%

15. Do you try and choose natural products as much as possible?

16. Yes: 78.3%

17. No, it doesn’t bother me whether products are natural or not: 17.4%

18. I wouldn’t know what products are natural: 4.3%

19. Are you aware of the implication of preservatives, additives and artificial flavourings and colourings on the average person?

20. Yes: 52.2%

21. I am aware of a couple of the implications: 44.9%

22. No, is there a problem with them?: 2.9%

23. If there were such a label certifying what food products are made of natural ingredients only, would you buy those labelled products wherever possible?

24. Yes, always: 44.9%

25. Yes, but only if the product is of equal price to other ones: 47.8%

26. No, it doesn’t bother me whether products are natural or not: 7.2%

Answers to the question ‘How would you define the word natural (when talking about food products)?’ and other interesting news will be shared on our Facebook page over the coming weeks.