Today, the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) presented its 2022 nutrition report ‘Germany, as it eats’ examining the eating and shopping habits of German consumers. According to the findings, climate and environmental aspects play a central role for most people when shopping for groceries. In addition, most consumers said that they consider animal welfare labeling to be important or very important. For this seventh representative survey since 2015, forsa on behalf of BMEL interviewed a total of 1,000 people in Germany aged 14 and above by telephone in February and March 2022 about their eating and shopping habits.
These are the main results:
- 84 percent of the respondents said that climate and environmental issues were very important (36 percent) or important (48 percent) to them when it comes to food. 54 percent felt rather well informed about the connections between the environment or climate and nutrition, and just under one fifth even felt very well informed. 41 percent of the respondents, especially younger people and women, would like to know more about an environmentally and climate-friendly diet.
- To implement a climate and environmentally friendly diet, consumers considered it very important to not waste food (76 percent), purchasing food according to demands (60 percent) including regional products (54 percent).
- Since 2015, daily consumption of meat and sausage products among consumers has decreased from 34 percent to 25 percent in 2022. On the other hand, vegetarian or vegan alternatives are consumed on a daily basis by some people under 30 (14 percent).
- Consumers said they buy vegetarian or vegan alternatives out of curiosity (75 percent), as well as for reasons of animal welfare (71 percent, compared to 59 percent in 2021) and to protect the environment and climate (64 percent, compared to 54 percent in 2021).
- 87 percent of respondents would find mandatory animal welfare labeling important (34 percent) or even very important (53 percent), and most would be willing to pay more for animal welfare.
- The Nutri-Score on product packaging has already been noticed by significantly more respondents when shopping (71 percent) than in the previous year (44 percent). For 38 percent, the Nutri-Score has already influenced the purchase decision.
Source: BMEL
More information and the report