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Global consumers enjoy food less and perceive it as less healthy

Enjoyment of food and its perceived healthiness is dwindling among most global populations, according to findings from Gallup and Ando Foundation/Nissin Food Products.

The consultancy and global research provider explored the significant influence that eating attitudes and behaviours have on global consumers’ subjective wellbeing.

The latest Satisfaction With Food Enjoyment and Variety Survey findings show that food enjoyment and satisfaction are decreasing, as is the perceived healthiness of food products among global populations. Gallup and the Ando Foundation are currently collecting the third wave of data. The upcoming data insights will allow the research partners to see if food satisfaction recovers in 2025, suggesting 2023 was a temporary dip, or if this trend is sustained.

Food satisfaction and health perceptions decrease

“These findings suggest food satisfaction declined in 2023, particularly in enjoyment and perceived healthiness,” Andrew Dugan, consulting principal researcher at Gallup, told Ingredients Network.

The researchers stated it is difficult to point to one single reason for this decline, and possible reasons vary by region. In some places, like Northern Africa, falling food satisfaction went hand-in-hand with fading economic confidence.

In other regions, the researchers found that food satisfaction fell sharper among particular demographic groups, such as young people in Northern America.

“This finding seems to echo a bigger 2024 World Happiness Report finding,” Dugan said. Using a question asking respondents to rate their lives on a scale of 0 to 10, we see that, over time, young people in the US have become less satisfied with their lives. It is a sentiment that consumers in some Western European countries, Australia, and New Zealand also convey.

In recent years, young people’s average life evaluation ratings have been lower than those of older age groups. “This bucks the longstanding trend of young people generally being more positive about many topics covered on the World Poll and similar surveys,” Dugan adds.

More research is needed to understand the relationship between food enjoyment and US consumer health. “At this point, it’s less clear what falling food enjoyment could mean for Americans’ health, though this is a relationship we plan to explore in future reports,” Dugan said.

Designed to uncover insights into how people feel about the food they eat, the survey identified that 81% of global consumers said they mostly enjoyed the food they ate in the past seven days and 75% said the food they ate was “mostly healthy”, down from 87% and 82% in the previous year’s findings. The US led the decline, with consumers reporting they mainly ate healthy foods declining from 83% to 71%. The 30 to 49-year-old demographic saw the most significant decrease, from 82% in 2022 to 57%.

Globally, 6.2 out of 10 consumers were satisfied with their eating experiences. Almost two-thirds (64%) felt they had a lot of choices in the types of food they ate, indicating a similar sentiment to previous findings.

Relationship between food enjoyment and quality of life

Understanding consumers’ level of food enjoyment is an important indicator of their overall life satisfaction. The researchers stated that consumers who feel optimistic about various food aspects are more likely to have higher levels of wellbeing and feel more socially connected or attached to their community.

The direct relationship between food enjoyment and life satisfaction is especially pronounced in consumers who are “completely satisfied” with their diet. Complete satisfaction suggests consumers enjoyed their food, felt it was mostly healthy and believed various options were available. Gallup and Ando Foundation/Nissin Food Products’ latest findings show that over half of global consumers (52%) fall into this category, down from 55% in the previous year’s survey.

Several regions, including Latin America and the Caribbean, Northern America, and Northern, Southern and Western Europe, demonstrated a near-universal feeling of food satisfaction, with 92% of consumers confirming their food enjoyment.

African consumers reported the lowest levels of food enjoyment, with 66% of those in Northern Africa and 61% in sub-Saharan Africa saying they enjoyed the food they recently ate. The researchers’ recent findings indicate large drop-offs in food enjoyment, including a five-percentage-point drop in Northern Africa and an eleven-point drop in sub-Saharan Africa.