Consumers' Awareness, Attitudes and Behaviours Towards Food
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Consumers’ awareness, attitudes and behaviours towards food fortification in Australia and New Zealand December 2013 0 Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) supports and encourages the dissemination and exchange of information. Information in this presentation is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia (CC BY 3.0) Licence, except for the Food Standards Australia New Zealand logo. Attribution: You may copy, distribute, transmit and adapt the material in this publication by the CC BY 3.0 licence for commercial and non-commercial purposes; but you must attribute the work in the following manner: © Food Standards Australia New Zealand. This attribution must not, in anyway, suggest that FSANZ endorses you or your use of the work. For more information email [email protected]. Third party material: To the extent that information published in this presentation contains material in which copyright is owned by a third party, the CC BY 3.0 licence would not apply to such third party material and, if you wish to re-use third party material, you may have to seek permission from the copyright owner. 1 Table of contents TERMS USED IN THIS REPORT ......................................................................................... 4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...................................................................................................... 6 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................. 9 Regulatory background ................................................................................................. 9 History of mandatory fortification ................................................................................. 11 Purpose of the mandatory fortification ......................................................................... 12 Monitoring ................................................................................................................... 12 Labelling of fortified foods ........................................................................................... 13 Structure of the report ................................................................................................. 14 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES ................................................................................................. 15 Research objectives.................................................................................................... 15 Research questions .................................................................................................... 15 Respondent attributes ................................................................................................. 16 METHOD ............................................................................................................................ 17 Questionnaire design .................................................................................................. 17 Questions used for comparing respondents ................................................................ 18 Sampling ..................................................................................................................... 20 Data preparation ......................................................................................................... 21 Analysis approach ...................................................................................................... 21 Study limitations .......................................................................................................... 22 RESPONSE ........................................................................................................................ 23 Demographics............................................................................................................. 23 MANDATORY FORTIFICATION ......................................................................................... 30 Awareness of mandatory fortification ............................................................................... 30 Awareness of food categories for which fortification is mandatory ................................... 32 Awareness of fortificants that must be added to bread in Australia and New Zealand ..... 35 Knowledge of the purpose of folic acid fortification .......................................................... 37 Attitude toward mandatory folic acid fortification .............................................................. 39 Knowledge of the purpose of iodine fortification .............................................................. 42 Attitude toward mandatory iodine fortification .................................................................. 45 Type of bread consumed ................................................................................................. 47 VOLUNTARY FORTIFICATION .......................................................................................... 51 Awareness of fortification ................................................................................................ 51 Effect of fortification on self-reported purchase intention ................................................. 52 2 Food and drinks that respondents purchase for added vitamins and minerals ................. 53 Reasons for buying or consuming fortified foods ............................................................. 55 How do consumers identify fortified foods? ..................................................................... 61 Which part of the label do consumers use to identify added vitamins and minerals? ....... 62 Which foods or drinks do consumers believe should not have vitamins or minerals added to them? .......................................................................................................................... 68 CONCLUSIONS .................................................................................................................. 71 Mandatory fortification ..................................................................................................... 71 Voluntary fortification ....................................................................................................... 71 Main messages from the research .................................................................................. 73 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................... 74 APPENDIX A: QUESTIONNAIRE ....................................................................................... 77 APPENDIX B: WEIGHTING MATRICES ............................................................................. 92 APPENDIX C: RESPONSE RATES .................................................................................... 94 APPENDIX D: DATA PREPARATION ................................................................................ 97 APPENDIX E: CODING OF FREE TEXT RESPONSES ................................................... 102 3 Terms used in this report American Association for An organisation of survey research professionals. The AAPOR Public Opinion Research has developed a set of standard definitions and formulae for (AAPOR) calculating response, cooperation, refusal and contact rates for surveys. Using these formulae ensures response rates can be compared across different surveys. AUSEI06 score A value derived using the Australian Socioeconomic Index 2006 and information on respondents’ work status and their occupation. Scores range from 0 to 100. Australian Bureau of Statistics Australia’s national statistical agency. (ABS) Australia New Zealand Food The Code lists requirements for food sold in Australia and New Standards Code (the Code) Zealand. It includes standards for food additives, food safety, labelling and foods that need pre-approval such as genetically modified foods. Australia and New Zealand See the Legislative and Governance Forum on Food Regulation Food Regulation Ministerial (the Forum). The Ministerial Council was replaced by the Forum Council (the Ministerial in 2011. Council) Australian Health Ministers’ A council of Commonwealth, State, Territory and New Zealand Advisory Council (AHMAC) Ministers with responsibility for health matters, and the Commonwealth Minister for Veterans’ Affairs. The role of the AHMAC is to support the Australian Health Ministers’ Conference by providing strategic advice on health issues and by acting as a forum for planning, information sharing and innovation. Australian Institute of Health An Australian Government agency set up to provide statistics on and Welfare (AIHW) Australia’s health and welfare. Body Mass Index (BMI) A weight to height ratio calculated by dividing a person’s weight in kilograms by their height in metres squared. Computer assisted telephone A method of conducting interviews over the telephone. interviewing (CATI) Interviewers are guided by a computerised questionnaire which automatically routes to relevant questions based on the responses entered to previous questions. Folic acid Folic acid, also referred to as pteroylmono-glutamic acid (PGA), is the most common synthetic form of folate and is the form used in fortification and in the majority of supplements.1 Fortification Fortification is the addition of vitamins and minerals to food including for reasons of equivalence or restoration.2 Iodised salt In the Code, iodised salt is a mixture of salt and: either potassium iodide or potassium iodate, or sodium