UK consumer attitudes, beliefs and barriers to increasing fruit and vegetable consumption

Abstract

Objectives. To assess attitudes, predictors of intention, and identlfy perceived barriers to increasing fruit and vegetable (F&V) intakes. Design: UK nationwide postal survey utilizing the theory of planned behaviour. Subjects: Stratified (by social class and region) random sample of 2020 UK adults providing a modest response rate of 37% ( n = 741). Results Belief measures (e.g. health, cost, taste, etc.1 were strongly associated with overall attitudes which were reported as being largely favourable towards fruit, vegetables and, to a lesser extent, vegetable dishes, and were strongly associated with reported intention to increase consumption. Subjects reported they could increase their consumption, but this was only weakly associated with intention to do so.

Evaluation of the effectiveness of the Ministry of Food cooking programme on self-reported food consumption and confidence with cooking

“…The characteristics of this group were different from those participating in the quantitative research: 73% (29) were white, 63% (25) were female, 75% (30) were aged under 60 years of age, 53% (21) came from a deprived area in Leeds, and 68% (27) did not report a disability.…”

“…Within the quantitative results of the current study, the male participants reported significantly greater increases in cooking confidence, whilst interviews revealed an increase in nutritional awareness, homemade cooking, enjoyment in cooking and confidence in males. The recent nationally representative UK nutrition survey also found that young people (19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34) have less confidence with cooking than other age groups in the UK (17) ; therefore they have more scope for improvement. However in our study, younger people (16)(17)(18)(19) improved in confidence less than 20-64 year olds.…”

Measuring fruit and vegetable intake: is five-a-day enough?

“…If disguised (amongst other questions) to discourage a tendency for positive response bias associated with F&V measurement (Cox et al, 1997a), it may also be a reasonably accurate measure of baseline consumption. The tendency of the ®ve portion/day measure to generate consumption exceeding 400 g may act as a way of encouraging consumption greater than this minimum recommended amount.…”

Letter to the Editor

“…SIR, In their contribution on 'UK attitudes, beliefs and barriers to increasing fruit and vegetable consumption', Cox et al 1 emphasized that 'public health efforts require stronger and broader health messages that incorporate consumer awareness of low present consumption'.…”

“…Regarding disappointment over the lack of changes occurring in the general population, certainly, as pointed out by many 1,9 , the cost of a 'prudent' diet is higher than that of an everyday diet, and hence will preclude or hinder changes being made by those wanting to do so but who are in low socioeconomic circumstances. Those in higher income brackets are known to eat more vegetables and fruit than the poor 10 .…”