Consumer Attitudes To Animal Welfare
This research study was conducted to explore consumer attitudes toward animal welfare and food quality and safety.
Previous research has shown that while people indicate a willingness to pay higher prices for humanely raised animal food products, in reality, they do not often do so. Consumers indicate that they are concerned with the safety of their food and where it originates from, although again, in practice, this does not seem to be the case. This current research shows that this is now changing and that more people are in fact willing to adjust purchasing behavior to reflect a greater interest in food safety, origins, and animal welfare.
The factors which have contributed to this shift in shopping patterns are:
- Increasing wealth and disposable income
- Concerns about food safety
- Health and diet relationship
- Retail driving premiumisation
There is also evidence that consumers know very little about what happens to food between slaughter and consumption. Consumers seem to know the most about animal living conditions prior to slaughter, and by feeling good with these conditions, consumers feel less guilty about consumption and there is a higher demand for higher welfare products. There is also evidence that consumer attitudes toward animal welfare differ depending on the type of species.
This research found that 67% of consumers think that animal welfare is an important issue. A previous study by Eurobarometer found that 62% of U.K. consumers (55% European average) felt that animal welfare deserved more focus in their country’s agricultural policy.
10% of consumers considered themselves to be high animal welfare shoppers who purchase all higher welfare foods within their weekly shopping. 36% do not make any higher animal welfare purchases at all, and somewhat more than 50% of the population is making 1 or 2 higher animal welfare purchases per week.
The group of consumers who are willing to change their shopping behaviors to include these higher animal welfare purchases is significant, but not large enough to sustain market growth.
20% of consumers stipulated that animal welfare is the driving factor that determines higher animal welfare purchases. Other reasons include health and naturalness, which implies that although animal issues are important, additional benefits such as health are likely to drive sales of these products even further. Price is also a factor when considering purchases, with previous IGD research showing that 41% consider prices as a factor in purchase decisions with 7% considering price to be the primary factor in decision making.
U.K. consumers are more willing to pay premiums for higher animal welfare standard foods over other European consumers. According to the European barometer research, about one quarter of U.K. consumers would be willing to pay more for higher animal welfare foods; 26% would be willing to pay 10% more, while 11% would be willing to pay 25% more. This is higher than the European average overall.
According to this research, 35% of consumers are confident about the living conditions of animals living in this food supply chain. Only “expert” customers seem to use internal clues, such as how the food is produced, in their decision making process. This may be due to differences in the levels of consumer awareness.
This research was conducted on both a quantitative and qualitative basis. Four discussion groups were held, with 8 participants each at various U.K. locations. Prior to these groups, a survey was administered to 1000 U.K. adults.