Taste, Price & Healthfulness Top Food Purchase Drivers

Originally Published: May 27, 2015
Last Updated: February 10, 2021
TASTE-Price-Healthfulness-Top-Food-Purchase-Drivers-2015-FEATURE

May 27, 2015 – Not much has changed in the last decade. When the International Food Information Council Foundation conducted its Food & Health Survey 2015, it asked “How much of an impact do the following have on your decision to buy foods and beverages?”

Those surveyed could rank each of five factors on a scale of 1 (No Impact) to 5 (A Great Impact). When the result were in, 83% of the 1,007 respondents had rated “Taste” as a 4 or 5, making it the top ranking driver of the factors listed. This was followed “Price” with 68%, “Healthfulness” at 60%, “Convenience” at 52% and “Sustainability” at 35%.

IFIC’s Executive Summary commented that “Taste, price, and healthfulness continue to be the biggest drivers of food purchasing decisions, although Americans are feeling less strongly about each of these factors in comparison to 2014.”

When it came to differences among generations, Summary noted that “Millennials expressed an interesting change in purchasing behavior: two years ago they were both significantly more price sensitive and less impacted by healthfulness in comparison to older generations; now they match the other generations on both fronts.” For more information on the 2015 Food and Health Survey, visit www.foodinsight.org/2015-FHS.