consumer awareness about food
Question
Most people are not interested in how their food has been produced. They care about how much it costs. How true is the statement? What influences people when they buy food?
Essay
In spite of the fact that some customers put the price as the primary consideration before consuming particular food, I believe that a majority of people put more concern on how healthy it is cooked. Apart from that, appearance and nutrition are two factors attracting people's appetite for food.
There seems a mindset growing that the more expensive the meal is, the higher its quality will be causing the reasonable price becomes some people's concern. In fact, however, there is no strong correlation between the price and quality of food. Taking some restaurants in Indonesia as examples, various brands of fast food which contains much preservation, additive, and unhealthy ingredients often offers higher cost than those selling fresh food. Accordingly, instead of only relying on the price, it is more common to cross-check the sanitation of food processing before deciding to purchase it.
Moreover, people tend to value some meal according to its appearance and nutrition fact. To illustrate, the condition of soft bread, blood-red meet, and fragrant apples indicates foods hygiene, origin, and freshness, and then influence consumers' preference, regardless of the actual process they have passed through. Besides, since many people are either health conscious or in a diet program, they often research how much vitamin, fat, mineral, and other nutrition that food contains to check whether it is well-matched with their calorie needs. Accordingly, not only does the outside condition, but the inside one also plays an important role in influencing people's desire for food.
To sum up, instead of paying much attention to how much money should be spent on a sort of food, generally, people's focus on how it is processed and served as well as its nutritional status outweighs it. Moreover, it appears that in future this trend will remain the same considering that more people are becoming more aware of their fitness rather than the financial condition.