Source: Alberta Beef Producers
Canadian consumers care now more than ever about their food. New research from the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity’s (CCFI) 2019 Public Trust Research Report shows that while 91% of Canadians claim to know little, very little or nothing about modern farming practices in Canada, 60% of survey respondents, meaning three in five Canadians, are interested in knowing more about agriculture and how their food is produced. CCFI surveyed 2,189 Canadians 18 years and older and examined the online conversations of close to 260,000 Canadians.
The 2019 report, ‘Connecting with Canadians’ provides benchmark data to better understand Canadian’s overall impression of Canada’s food system and consumers’ expectations and sentiment of contentious food-related issues.
Two new tracking trends identified in the 2019 data are Canadian consumers’ moderate to strong concerns relating to food fraud (91%) – the practice of mislabeling, adulterating or counterfeiting food products – and concerns with misleading food labels (89%) for the purpose of marketing. Consumers are starting to look more closely at food labels and are asking questions about what certain food labels mean.
“The timing of the research is pertinent considering how food related topics are dominating news relating to plant-based diets, pesticides, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and consumer’s perspective on agriculture’s role in greenhouse gas emissions relating to climate change,” says John Jamieson, CEO & President of CCFI. “The 2019 research is a key resource for Canada’s food system to learn how to better connect with consumers.”
You can read the full release at https://www.foodintegrity.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Canadians-Want-to-be-Better-Connected-to-their-Food.pdf
CCFI welcomes those interested in a copy of the 2019 Research Report ‘Connecting with Canadians’ to visit the CCFI website to download the report.
