Changing Consumer Habits and the Return to Simple and Natural Food Ingredients

Today’s food shoppers want real, fresh, and local foods at an affordable price. There was a time when convenience was the reigning champion consumers considered when choosing food products.

While convenience is still an important element that consumers consider, real foods made with real ingredients carry much more weight for today’s food shoppers. But because shoppers are becoming increasingly wary of food labels that advertise products as natural and healthy, they’re relying more and more on ingredient listings to guide their purchasing decisions. They are buying health-promoting foods with simple and natural ingredients that they recognize.

Moreover, to meet the demand for local foods, an increasing number of shoppers are choosing farmers markets over grocery chains, because they’re not finding enough local options in grocery stores.

In order to meet the increasing demand for real food, grocery stores across the country could consider healthy products from local manufacturers, and products that only contain simple, natural, and easily recognizable ingredients.