Survey reveals confusion about the healthfulness of processed foods

A new survey by the International Food Information Council (IFIC) revealed consumers are conflicted about the healthfulness of processed foods.

Almost a fifth (18%) of Americans said eating less processed foods is something they can do to eat healthier, according to IFIC’s Public Perception of Processed Foods in a Healthy Diet survey. More than half (53%), however, said they think processed foods can be part of a healthy diet.

The majority of Americans (69%) reported eating processed foods at least sometimes and only 4% said they never eat processed foods. The top reasons consumers eat processed foods is because they’re easy to prepare (33%), they enjoy the taste (32%) and they can be stored longer (29%).

How consumers feel about health affects the number of processed foods they eat, the survey found.

For instance, among people who reported that a healthy diet is very important, 59% said they eat processed foods at least sometimes and 40% said they eat processed foods rarely or not at all. On the flip side, consumers who said a healthy diet is not at all important reported they ate more processed foods. Among this group, 77% said they eat processed foods at least sometimes and 19% said they eat processed foods rarely or not at all.

Only 4% of consumers said a healthy diet is not at all important to them, versus 40% who said a healthy diet is very important.

The report found most consumers consider such processed foods as frozen broccoli (64%), frozen berries (62%), vanilla Greek yogurt (60%) and canned tuna (55%) to be foods that meet the parameters of a healthy diet.

Few consumers, however, consider foods like frozen vegetables, frozen fruit, dried vegetables and dried fruit to be “processed foods.” Fewer than a third (31%) said they consider frozen vegetables to be processed foods, while a slightly higher number said frozen vegetables (32%), dried vegetables (32%) and dried fruit (33%) were processed foods.

That’s not surprising, considering a whopping 70% of consumers said they do not fully understand what a processed food is, per IFIC’s survey.

Foods that consumers are more likely to consider “processed foods” include store-bought cookies (75%), candy and ice cream (73%), American cheese slices (71%), cake and canned meat (68%), ready-made baked goods (67%), deli meat and beef jerky (66%), and white bread and cereal (65%).

Interestingly, consumer perception of a food’s healthfulness was, in some cases, linked to the perceived processing of the food.

IFIC’s survey found the top labels that indicate the healthfulness of a food or beverage include “no artificial ingredients” (34%), “no additives” (26%), “organic” (22%), “no added sugar” (19%) and “natural” (19%).

Looking at yogurt products, consumers were more likely to consider “flavored yogurt” to be a processed food, identified by 62% of consumers as a processed food, versus flavored yogurt with less added sugar (58%), low-fat plain yogurt (39%) or low-fat plain Greek yogurt (39%).