‘Just nine percent of shoppers always read labels’

New research conducted by Canadean Consumer has revealed that while 32 per cent of UK consumers ‘often’ read the ingredients list on products they buy, only nine per cent ‘always do so’.

The research also revealed that 21 per cent of consumers ‘rarely’ or ‘never’ read the ingredients, preventing them from familiarising themselves with less-everyday ingredients including DHA (38 per cent awareness), stevia (42 per cent) and taurine (47 per cent).

Women (44 per cent) are more likely than men (39 per cent) to ‘always’ or ‘often’ read the ingredients list on products they buy – in fact, 26 per cent of males ‘never’ or ‘rarely’ read the ingredients list, compared to only 17 per cent of females.

This difference may imply that women are generally more health- conscious than their male counterparts, and are specifically using ingredient information as a means of guiding their healthy product choices.

Moreover, the study revealed that consumers from a higher social status are more likely to check ingredients lists always or often (44 per cent) compared to consumers from a lower social status (38 per cent).

“Consumers from lower social status groups may be less likely to deviate from regular product purchases as a result of tighter budget constraints,” suggests Canadean Consumer research manager Alex Wilman. “When it comes to checking ingredients, consumers are more likely to do so with unfamiliar products. As a result, consumers from higher social status groups may therefore check ingredients more frequently.”

Every day ingredients such as salt, caffeine and olive oil are familiar to virtually all consumers, regardless of whether they check the ingredients list on a product or not. Awareness of newer and more specialist ingredients, such as DHA, stevia and taurine, however, relies more heavily on consumers reading labels.

“With only nine per cent of consumers always checking the ingredients on products they buy, awareness levels of ‘less-common’ ingredients, like DHA, may stay low,” adds Wilman. “DHA is increasingly being used on the face of product packaging as a key healthy marketing claim, despite many consumers being unfamiliar with the ingredient. Manufacturers and marketing teams may be better off sticking to more well-known terms when making health benefit claims – like ‘containing omega-3’ – or they risk the impact of the ingredients being lost on many consumers.”