I’m pleased to share the 2nd edition of our new Consumer Food Insights (CFI) survey (check here for more background and results from the inaugural release).
Overall, we observed a high degree of stability in a number of our measures including the Sustainable Food Purchasing Index, preferences for food policies, and food/diet happiness and satisfaction, and shopping behaviors. While it perhaps isn’t exciting to report little to no change in many of these measures, it does suggest reliability in our survey methods and points to the fact that we are getting at fundamental measures of consumer attitudes and behaviors that are stable across time. It also suggests that when we do observe significant changes in the future, we can be more confident that fundamental shifts are occurring rather than just picking up sampling error or spurious fluctuations.
We did observe an increase in consumers’ food price inflation expectations and a corresponding increase in consumers’ spending on food at home and away from home. Increasing inflation expectations are a bit worrisome because expectations of future price increases can lead to a self-fulfilling prophesy. That is, if consumers expect prices to continue rising, they ask and demand more compensation from their employers and clients, which leads to increased demand for goods and higher prices.
That said, it is interesting that consumers’ perceptions of how much food prices have increased over the past year is quite a bit lower than the official data on food price increases reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that prices of food at grocery increased 7.4% over the course of the past year (see our handy data dashboard on food price changes); however, the consumers in our survey said, on average, said they thought food prices had increased “only” 5.2% over the past year. Apparently consumers’ aren’t “feeling” inflation as much as the official data suggests. This may be a result of the fact that consumers can adjust to higher prices in a variety of ways by, for example, substituting to lower price alternatives or shopping on sale or at discount retailers.
When we directly asked consumers how they were responding to increased food prices, the most common answer (selected by 31% of respondents), was that they had made little to no change in their shopping habits, which suggests wage and income growth, coupled with savings, have not led to major shifts in consumers’ buying habits. The second most common answer, selected by 24% of respondents, was that they sought out more sales and discounts. Fewer than 1 in 10 said they searched for better prices online or spent less on other goods to maintain food consumption.
Through another ad-hoc question, we delved into mandatory GMO labeling. As of January 1st, 2022, certain foods that are genetically modified in a way that is not possible through conventional breeding are required to disclose that they are “bioengineered” or “contains a bioengineered ingredient.” Food companies can choose how they wish to disclose – either via a new symbol/label on the food product, through text on the food package, or through a QR code or phone number on a food package.
Given the newness of this policy, we were curious how food companies were responding and whether consumers were aware of the new disclosure requirements. Over two-thirds of respondents indicated that they have not seen the bioengineered label on food packages. Of that group, 87% had never seen the labels before, with the remaining 13% being familiar with the label but not yet encountering it in the store. Only 19% of consumers were sure they had seen the label in the store. Of this group, only 37% said they always check for it when shopping.
