Natural and Clean – Research for Understanding Consumers

SPI Group is committed to helping our customers meet consumers’ needs, as we all know, one of the most popular trends is clean(er) labels and natural.  Except that clean and natural have no definition.  DuPont Nutrition and Health spent the last year researching what consumers mean when they say they want clean and natural.

• 57% of adults are making an effort to avoid packaged food and beverages with chemical or artificial ingredients
• 58% say the avoidance is due to concerns about negative impacts on their health
• Of 1200 US consumers, 53% ALWAYS read labels on a first time purchase and 20% ALMOST ALWAYS

Except, 46% say they are confused by nutrition facts panels!

So, half of consumers want to avoid certain ingredients and half of consumers read labels except they don’t know what the labels mean.  In other words, they want to read labels and make certain choices but don’t know how.

Here are a few comments regarding specific ingredients:

• 56% of consumers think “Chicory root fiber” is natural, 14% think “Inulin” is natural
• 63% of consumer think “protein from soy” is natural, 36% think “soy protein isolate” is natural
• 54% of consumer think “rice starch” is natural, 13% think “modified corn starch” is natural

And finally, who is willing to pay for all of this?  Consumers who want to change their health and live a good life, are willing to pay up to 10% more for natural and clean foods.  Those interested in taste and weight management are not.  In our sample size of over 10,000 adults, the second group composed more than half of the sample.

Want to know more about this primary customer data that can help you create a clean label strategy?  Call your SPI Group account manager today to set up an appointment