Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Title
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Volume
20
Issue
3
PubMed ID
36767997
Publisher
MDPI
School
Nutrition and Health Innovation Research Institute
RAS ID
57851
Funders
National Health and Medical Research Council Emerging Leadership Investigator Grant (ID: 1172987)/ Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship / National Heart Foundation of Australia Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship (ID: 102498)
Grant Number
NHMRC Number : 1172987
Abstract
Environmentally sustainable diets are increasingly aspired to in food-based dietary guidelines across the world. However, little is known about consumer attitudes toward these diets when making food decisions. This study aimed to identify the demographic characteristics of Australian adults based on the level of attention they paid to the healthfulness of their diet, their consideration of the level of food processing, and their concern about household food waste and sustainable packaging disposal. Adults aged from 18 to over 75 years (n = 540) were surveyed online. Thirty-seven percent were concerned about sustainable food waste, 28 % considered the level of food processing when making food decisions, and 23 % paid attention to the healthfulness of the food they ate. Adults who had higher educational attainment (above Year 12) were twice as likely to be concerned about food waste and sustainable packaging disposal (odds ratio (OR) = 2.10, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 1.29 – 3.4), and processing levels (OR = 2.04, 95 % CI 1.23 – 3.42) (controlling for age and gender). Those earning an income over AUD$100,000 were twice as likely to pay attention to the healthfulness of their food choices than those earning less than AUD$50,000 (OR = 2.19, 95 % CI 1.28 – 3.74). Only 9 % percent were concerned about or paid attention to all three of the components of healthy sustainable diets investigated, and 45 % paid no attention and were not concerned about all three components. These findings suggest there is a need to educate the public to raise awareness of and concern for healthy, minimally processed, and sustainable food choices.
DOI
10.3390/ijerph20032633
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Comments
Healy, J. D., Dhaliwal, S. S., Pollard, C. M., Sharma, P., Whitton, C., Blekkenhorst, L. C., ... & Kerr, D. A. (2023). Australian consumers’ attitudes towards sustainable diet practices regarding food waste, food processing, and the health aspects of diet: A cross sectional survey. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(3), 2633. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20032633