November 7th, 2022, Clifton Mark
Concerns about sustainability among consumers affect nearly all industries, and the cooking sauce market is no exception. In the US, 54% of adults say they’re either very engaged or care for the environment. In the UK, the number is even higher with 61% giving the same answers.
A recent YouGov webinar discusses sauce consumers’ attitudes towards the environment and how brands might respond to their expectations. The webinar was hosted by Kenton Barello, VP, Enterprise Clients, CPG Foods at Yougov; Azam Khan, Senior Business development Manager and Özge Akçizmeci Üstün, GM YouGov Turkey.
When asked what kinds of actions food companies can take that would have the most impact on the environment, the top three answers given by sauce consumers are “Switch to glass bottles rather than plastic,” (47%) “Have clear bio-degradable packaging” (46%) and “Providing resealable packaging” (43%). Other reasons given by large proportions of consumers are: “Be neutral in carbon footprint” (35%), “Switch to cans rather than plastic” (31%) and simply to “have smaller packaging” (28%). 28% of customers also say that companies could “Provide creative recipe ideas with leftovers.”
Read our report on the global cooking sauce market
Expectations on brands vary significantly across markets. The chart above shows how different markets diverge from the overall global index of 100. Green highlights show answers that are much more positive than the index and red highlights indicate that answer was less popular within a market. For example, consumers in Great Britain have higher expectations for companies on sustainable materials than do other countries. In general, US consumers have lower expectations about the environmental impact of company actions than the other markets surveyed. French respondents believe that waste management (single serve) would have a greater impact, whereas Germany favours organic alternatives.
While opinions about what actions most affect the environment are important, those actions can also influence the purchase behaviors of consumers. French and German shoppers say that the choice of organic alternatives or plant-based options would influence their purchases the most. In the USA, consumers say that providing creative leftover ideas could be beneficial, whereas Britons say that switching to cans would influence their purchasing choices.
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For a deeper look into the differences between sauce markets, view the complete webinar here.
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Methodology: YouGov RealTime Omnibus provides quick survey results from nationally representative or targeted audiences in multiple markets. The data is based on surveys of adults aged 18 and over in 18 markets with sample sizes varying between 2052 and 2976 for each market. All surveys were conducted online in June 2022. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from Mexico and India, which use urban representative samples, and Indonesia and Hong Kong, which use online representative samples. Learn more about YouGov RealTime Omnibus.
Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash